Unions helped Democrats win big in 2026. Now they want action - CNBC

When Brody Rutledge wasn't working 60-hour weeks or raising his four children this year, he was busy helping secure political victories for Democrats.

The 25-year-old was part of a group of Ohio union members who planned social-media blitzes in support of Amy Acton's campaign for governor and Sherrod Brown's effort to reclaim a Senate seat. On his lunch hour, during break times and after his kids went to sleep, the electrician helped create posts and videos to help raise the profiles of the two candidates among blue-collar voters.

The posts attracted more than 15,000 views.

Rutledge's efforts paid off: Acton and Brown won their respective races, part of the blue wave that swept Democrats to power in Washington and in state houses across America — including in many states, like Ohio, that had been considered Republican-leaning, or reliably Republican.

"People are realizing that there needs to be a change," Rutledge told CNBC. "We are extremely excited with the results."

Rutledge was a part of what organized labor considered one of its biggest political efforts yet. Unions spent millions of dollars and mobilized thousands of members to get out the vote for Democrats in the midterm election. Now, they expect newly elected politicians to deliver.

Democrats, they say, need to get a handle on inflation, enact worker protections and deliver union jobs.

The AFL-CIO launched a seven-figure paid media campaign for the election and said its members since Labor Day had engaged with nearly 15 million voters. By the AFL-CIO's count, more than 600 members of unions themselves were elected in the midterm, including dozens heading to Washington and hundreds who are bound for statehouses.

The CNBC Voter Poll shows midterm voters who were union members or lived in a union household went for Democrats over Republicans by a margin of 22 percentage points, the highest of the last four election cycles. That's more than double the margin for the rest of the electorate: When looking at voters in non-union households, the gap shrunk to 10 percentage points.

"We are very proud of the impact that the labor movement made on this election," said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, a federation of unions that represents almost 15 million workers. "It was our biggest and boldest effort ever."

In some cases, unions got involved before party nominees had been decided.

In Michigan, the United Auto Workers organized behind Democrat Abdul El-Sayed ahead of what became a contentious primary race for U.S. Senate that he eventually won against Haley Stevens. The union believes that about one out of every 10 early voters in the August primary were UAW members.

"It was incredibly impactful," Connor Farrell, a progressive fundraiser who worked with El-Sayed, said of the UAW's endorsement. "I'm not sure we would have won without them."

El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson — the Democratic nominee for Michigan governor, who also had early backing from the UAW — cruised to victory in last week's general election. It was a sharp reversal for the Wolverine state, which backed President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024.

The UAW held a rally on the eve of Election Day headlined by El-Sayed and Benson, along with other Democrats running for statewide office. The Detroit-based union said its volunteers knocked on more than 100,000 doors and made half a million phone calls for the election.

The CNBC Voter Poll showed union households made up about 22% of the electorate in Michigan in the 2026 midterm, above the 16% mean nationwide. Union households in Michigan broke for El-Sayed and Benson by higher-than-average margins of 25 and 27 points, respectively. 

"There's a direct correlation between a ballot box and a bread box," said UAW President Shawn Fain, who described the union's 2026 political efforts as the largest in his lifetime. "What we bargain for today can be taken away in the legislative halls tomorrow."

In Nevada, another swing state, members of AFL-CIO unions canvassed for a list of candidates including Aaron Ford, the Democrat who unseated Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. Down ballot, the AFL-CIO endorsed candidates in state assembly, mayoral and city council races.

Vladimir Ortega, a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers living in North Las Vegas, said displeasure with how Republicans had managed the economy led him to volunteer to canvas with the AFL-CIO for the first time. The 34-year-old met Ford and other candidates at political events, and he plans to volunteer for candidates backed by AFL-CIO again in 2028.

"People felt like they had to be there," Ortega said. "Their money hurt, and they want to do something about it."

For generations, union voters and their families were a core bloc of the Democratic base. But the party's iron grip on organized labor had slipped in recent election cycles as union members, like other working-class voters, grew frustrated by high inflation and affordability challenges, according to Paul Clark, a Pennsylvania State University professor.

The National Election Pool's Poll showed union households voted for Democrats by a margin of 16 and 15 percentage points in the 2020 and 2022 contests, respectively. That narrowed to just 8 points in 2024, when voters' economic frustrations led Republicans to win a trifecta of power in Washington: the presidency and both houses of Congress.

The Teamsters declined to back either Trump or former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, snapping a long history of Democratic endorsements. The union, with more than one million members, said internal polling showed members preferred Trump over Harris.

Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said on social media that he voted for Ashley Moody, the victorious Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida, in the 2026 midterm. The Teamsters didn't respond to a CNBC request for comment.

"Obviously, 2024 was very disappointing for unions and the American labor movement," said Clark at Penn State, who has authored books on collective bargaining and organized labor. "That caused some introspection on the part of unions in terms of their political strategies and how they communicate with their members about politics."

This time around, there appeared to be more excitement among card-carrying union members heading to the polls. AFL-CIO polling showed 83% of union voters were "very motivated" to vote, an increase of 10 points from the last midterm election in 2022.

Following their midterm defeat, Clark said he wouldn't be surprised to see Republicans courting unions ahead of the 2028 presidential election. But that could be an uphill battle, given the party's history of advocating for business interests over workers, Clark said.

Looking ahead, organized labor has big expectations for Democrats after helping the party to power in Washington and state capitols across the country.

In Ohio, Rutledge said that his International Brotherhood of Electric Workers chapter is focused on ensuring new data center construction projects use union labor. In Michigan, UAW President Fain said the union expects a majority-Democrat state legislature to approve a law guaranteeing unemployment insurance for striking workers. 

"The days of just blindly giving our endorsements to people because of party affiliation are over," Fain said. "They're going to earn our support."

If Democrats don't act when they have legislative majorities in Washington, union leaders warn that they will pull their support in 2028 and beyond.

Across the nation, Shuler, the AFL-CIO president, said union voters went to the polls last week in hopes of enacting policy that will level the economic playing field. The CNBC Voter Poll found that 70% of respondents believed the U.S. economy favors the wealthy over the middle- and working class.

"Republican, Democrat, independent, we'll be with you if you're with us," Shuler said. "It just so happens that we had a big wave of Democratic candidates who were talking about working-class issues."