UE Political Action Updates

As young workers are re-energizing the U.S. labor movement, young voters turned out in record numbers in this year’s midterm elections, turning an expected “red wave” of anti-worker Republican victories into a mere trickle.

Defying both expectations and historical patterns (the party that controls the presidency almost always loses a large number of seats in Congress during midterm elections), Republicans were unable to take full control of Congress. Perhaps more importantly, a slate of secretary of state candidates who had pledged to use their control of electoral machinery to engineer a Republican victory in the 2024 presidential election — regardless of how voters vote — went down to defeat in all but one state, Indiana.

Statement of the UE General Executive Board

The situation working people find ourselves in as we approach the midterm elections — a cost-of-living crisis, broken labor law, and assaults on our rights and liberties — requires decisive action from our government. However, we are prevented from exercising democratic control over our society and economy by a corrupt two-party system that is fueled by corporate cash, and enabled by divisions among working people and increasing cynicism about democracy itself.

Summer Lee, a strong UE ally and champion of the working class, won the Democratic primary for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 12th District on May 17. The hard-fought campaign saw millions of dollars of out-of-state “dark money” pouring into the state in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to defeat her.

In the midst of a pandemic that has claimed nearly one million American lives – more than one third of which have been linked to a lack of health insurance – Senantor Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and fourteen other Senators introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2022 on May 12. The bill will guarantee health care to everyone in the United States as a fundamental human right.