Unions and the Election: A Mixed Bag

Despite spending some $200 million in support of liberal politicians across the country, Big Labor was unable to save the House of Representatives for the Democrats, or to prevent conservatives from making gains in the United States Senate.  However, labor unions and their resources were able to make a difference in key races, holding Democrat losses to lower levels than they otherwise would have been.  In Nevada, for example, there’s no doubt that the combined efforts of the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees Union (SEIU), and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), among other unions, with their over 150,000 volunteers and hundreds of thousands of dollars, was the deciding factor in saving Harry Reid, whom AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka called “our champion.”