Hi John,

Last night, voters across the country sent a clear message: When candidates stand with workers, they win.

For too long, politicians have chased billionaire donors instead of listening to the workers who teach our children and care for our sick, build infrastructure and operate machines, harvest food and stock shelves, 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. From city halls to statehouses across the country, workers elected leaders who will help us build an economy for the people, not the billionaire bosses.

For months leading up to Election Day, union volunteers worked tirelessly to drive big wins for pro-worker, pro-democracy leaders and initiatives across the country. In New York, California, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, union members rallied their communities to elect the candidates who will tackle the cost of living, 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. At the doors and on the phones, workers told us the same thing we hear at jobsites and in union halls across the country: 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. 

And yesterday’s victories were just the beginning. We will continue to take back our country from the billionaire CEOs who control our economy and our lives. 

Let’s keep up the energy and momentum from Election Day by making our voices even louder about the government shutdown and health care crisis.     

Working people continue to stand together as many of us wake up to a new reality from the Trump administration and their allies in Congress: The nation has officially entered its longest period of shutdown ever. Federal food assistance has lapsed for the first time in U.S. history. Millions of working families are hurting today as they face empty bank accounts and long lines at food banks. And millions more, living paycheck to paycheck, have checked their Affordable Care Act premium prices and are discovering they simply can’t pay double or triple last year’s insurance costs.   

If you haven’t done so, please make a call or send an email to your representative in Congress—and the leaders on Capitol Hill—to fund the government, fix the health care crisis and put working people first. And if you’ve made a call already, will you make another one today—the day this becomes the longest government shutdown in history? 

Today, there is real reason to feel hope. In the streets, in the halls of power and in the voting booth, we won’t stop fighting back for working people. From now until Election Day 2026, millions of union members will be having conversations with workers across the country about what’s at stake in next year’s elections and the path to a better future for our families.

Thank you for standing with us—for all you have done and continue to do to support working families each and every day.

In solidarity, 

Team AFL-CIO

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