WASHINGTON—Union leaders cheered wins by pro-worker candidates and a pro-worker cause—California’s Prop 50—in the November 4 election. Several looked beyond that to next year’s campaign and balloting. All said the results repudiated President Trump and his extremist MAGA agenda and corporate backers.
Service Employees President April Verrett said the results augur well for next November’s wider national election. “When working people organize together, we win together. This is just the beginning of what’s coming in 2026. We got next,” she said.
“Voters REJECTED the authoritarian playbook!” SEIU tweeted on X. “Workers delivered a major win nationwide, from NYC to Virginia. We sent a clear message: WORKERS come first. Candidates who prioritize workers—like (Zohran) Mamdani, (Mikie) Sherrill, and (Abigail) Spanberger—won BIG.
“Voters rebuked policies that have shut down our government, vastly increased healthcare costs, dismantled public services, militarized our cities, and demonized our immigrant neighbors.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said unions “would run an unprecedented ground game” through next year’s voting to inform and educate their members and the wider public about what’s at stake for workers in the battle against corporate greed, multibillionaires, and their political handmaidens.
Most leaders praised the night’s headliner: Democratic Socialist Mamdani, the Democratic New York Mayoral nominee who quoted famed Socialist labor leader Eugene V. Debs while proclaiming victory to supporters who filled a theater in Brooklyn and spilled out its door.
“Mamdani’s inspiring victory and massive turnout underscored that standing up for tenants, workers, and the quality of life isn’t just good policy—it’s good politics. And in Pennsylvania, state Supreme Court justices retained their seats, affirming voters’ belief in the rule of law,” said AFT/Teachers President Randi Weingarten, a New York City civics teacher on leave.
“Tonight’s results are a victory in our fight for opportunity, good public schools, safe neighborhoods, and a life that working people can afford. Americans want and deserve leaders who work on behalf of their constituents, not themselves. The people, and democracy, won.”
“Mamdani’s landslide win in New York City set the tone for the night, showing us all what’s possible when candidates put working people in the spotlight,” SEIU President Verrett declared. “His campaign inspired young voters, immigrants, and people of all backgrounds.”
Mamdani’s win also produced the largest turnout, just over two million, in a Big Apple mayoral election since 1969. Exit polls showed a huge share of that jump was among young voters, who went heavily for the 34-year-old state legislator running on a progressive platform. Young unionists were also a large part of the 100,000-plus volunteers walking streets and working phones for Mamdani.
“Workers won victories from Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court to the Charlotte City Council, sending the message that it is time for a worker’s agenda at every level of government,” Verrett added.
Leaders who backed the loser in the New York mayoral tilt, scandal-scarred ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, 67, stayed silent. Anti-worker President Donald Trump, who had endorsed Cuomo and called Mamdani “a Communist,” said the Democrats won because he [Trump] “wasn’t on the ballot.”
Trump inferred if this were a presidential election year he would have carried GOP candidates to victory. That and the government shutdown, he said in a Truth Social post, were “the two reasons that Republicans lost elections tonight.” Trump, of course, forced the shutdown.
Various pundits concluded, from the wins by Mamdani, in gubernatorial races, and in a key redistricting referendum in California—which won almost two-to-one—that voters are disgusted with Trump, his threats, racism and his federal government shutdown.
AFL-CIO President Shuler said so, too. “From now until Election Day 2026, the labor movement will run an unprecedented ground game to engage millions of workers about what’s at stake in next year’s elections and the path to a better future for our families,” she announced.
Voters nationwide “sent a clear message: When candidates stand with workers, they win,” Shuler declared. She also chastised unnamed politicians who “for too long…chased billionaire donors instead of listening to workers” such as teachers, nurses, construction workers, grocery stockers, and others, “and keep us safe and power our essential services.
“The candidates who earned voters’ trust focused on making life more affordable, creating good jobs and restoring the dignity of work,” said Shuler.
Making life more affordable was a key Mamdani theme—and Shuler cited his win there, but did not name him. AFL-CIO member unions in New York split between Mamdani and Cuomo.
“Workers elected leaders who will help us build an economy for the people, not the billionaire bosses,” Shuler continued. They also hit the hustings for “candidates who will raise wages, create good union jobs, and protect our freedoms.
“We don’t need to wait for lengthy post-mortems on this election to understand what happened last night,” Shuler said in a shot at the chattering class of Washington-based campaign operatives who oppose authentic truth-telling hopefuls.
“People want leaders who will stand up for us, focus on the issues we care most about, deliver real solutions that support working people and protect our democracy.” Other reactions were:
Teachers’ President Weingarten stressed preserving democracy against Trump and MAGA politics. Her union and its biggest affiliate, the million-member New York State United Federation of Teachers, had made the Trump threat a key theme in the final weeks of campaigning.
She also singled out Mamdani by name for praise: “Zohran Mamdani’s inspiring victory and massive turnout underscored that standing up for tenants, workers, and the quality of life isn’t just good policy—it’s good politics,” said Weingarten.
“Families want a life they can afford—so they voted for decency over division, democracy over authoritarianism and, above all, an economy that works for everyone, not just the ultra-rich,” Weingarten said of Trump’s corporate backers. Many of those titans, especially on Wall Street, poured millions of dollars into Cuomo’s losing campaign against Mamdani.
“And in Pennsylvania, state Supreme Court justices retained their seats, affirming voters’ belief in the rule of law,” she added, in another veiled criticism of Trump’s election denial and the state GOP’s slavish agreement with its voter disenfranchisement schemes.
Voters “want their elected officials to care about them—not ballrooms, not tariffs, not billionaires, not self-serving political revenge,” Weingarten continued in a direct blast at Trump.
“This election was a repudiation of the president’s cruel, chaotic, and corrupt agenda that has made working people’s lives harder. But it was also a reaffirmation of hope and opportunity in the face of fear and despair.”
Weingarten also praised the victories of former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and current Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., in gubernatorial races. Spanberger will be Virginia’s first-ever female governor.
Spanberger’s running mate, State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, joined New Yorker Mamdani in making history. Both are Muslim-Americans. He’ll be the first of their faith to run the nation’s largest city. As lieutenant governor, Hashmi will be the first Muslim-American elected to a statewide office anywhere in the U.S. Her win also makes her a prospect to follow Spanberger to the governor’s chair. Virginia limits governors to one four-year term, though they can run again later.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders praised New Jersey victor Sherrill and Virginia winner Spanberger for pushing pocketbook issues and public workers’ rights.
Sherrill focused on “what matters most to working people right now: Lowering costs. From increasing access to great schools and quality hospitals to improving transit options and infrastructure, Gov.-elect Sherrill knows the key to affordability is strong public services,” Saunders said.
Spanberger “dedicated her career to supporting her neighbors,” he added, alluding to her congressional service. “She’s fought to lower costs for families, expand access to health care, strengthen public education and improve the vital services Virginians rely on every day.”
Saunders predicted that with larger pro-worker majorities in the legislature—notably the state Senate—public workers’ right to organize can be expanded everywhere in the Old Dominion. That may be not be easy, even with a Democratic “trifecta” in Richmond, as the business lobby still holds great sway in what is still a right-to-work (for less) state.
AFSCME District Council 37, which represents 150,000 workers in New York City, added Mamdani to the mix.
“Working-class New Yorkers are fed up with a system that benefits the few over the many. We’re proud to be one of the first unions to endorse Zohran for mayor, and we look forward to working with his administration to ensure New York City becomes an affordable place for all who live here—especially those who make this city run,” Executive Director Henry Garrido said.
Among the hosannas, there were two jarring notes, from Ohio and Arizona. Both can be laid at the GOP’s feet.
An Ohio redistricting commission, mandated by the state constitution, redrew the state’s already GOP-lopsided congressional map to make it even more so in 2026. The new map endangers Congress’ long-serving Democratic—and intensely pro-worker—Rep. Marcy Kaptur, by making her swing district lean Republican. It would leave only two safe Democratic seats, one each in Cleveland and Columbus, in a state whose voting pattern is purple to light red. The state delegation is now 10-5 Republican.
And Arizona Rep.-elect Anita Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, went to federal court to force right-wing House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to swear her into office. Grijalva won the seat, succeeding her late father Raul—a revered progressive and pro-worker lawmaker—after Johnson adjourned the House on September 19. He refuses to call it back and claims he can’t swear Grijalva in until he does.
Johnson has two real reasons to stall. One is to force the Senate to swallow whole the House-passed bill to reopen the full government after the record and ongoing Trump-forced shutdown—and without acceding to Democratic demands to restore looming loss of health care coverage and benefits nationwide. The other is to silence Grijalva’s progressive voice, notably as the needed 218th signature on an unusual device, a “discharge petition,” to force a vote demanding release of court files involving the late serial sexual exploiter Jeffrey Epstein. Trump is thought to be in those files.
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