Neither Down Nor Out
This is not where any of us were hoping to be this week. However you’re feeling right now — disappointed, scared, angry, exhausted, or all of the above — the labor movement is right there with you.
We won’t sugarcoat the results of last Tuesday’s election. Donald Trump was elected President with a 14% margin of victory in Texas. Ted Cruz won easily. Republicans swept all statewide offices and expanded their majorities in the Texas Senate and House. And Trump outperformed his 2016 and 2020 performance with many constituencies that traditionally lean Democratic.
But if the exit polls are roughly accurate, about 19 million people who had voted for Biden in 2020 just stayed home. What that shows is that too many Americans are still feeling economically insecure and skeptical that the political options on offer will improve their lives.
But there is also reason for hope.
Nationally, the AFL-CIO’s Labor 2024 program reached 10 million unique voters — more than ever in our history. Across the country and in our battleground states, union voters and households outperformed the electorate by nearly 17 points in breaking for Vice President Kamala Harris — and in many cases, even outperformed our own efforts in 2020. That is directly because of your hard work.
In Harris County we re-elected Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and County Attorney Christian Menefee, and elected labor allies Sean Teare and Annette Ramirez as our new District Attorney and Tax Assessor Collector. And in Fort Bend, we played a critical role in re-electing Sheriff Eric Fagan.
Houston ISD voters soundly rejected Mike Miles’s failed vision for our schools, voting down his unaccountable money grab 60 % to 40%. And voters passed Harris County Proposition A, ensuring we have the resources to maintain flood infrastructure in our region.
All that is to say: the volunteers from 17 affiliated unions that completed 682 volunteer shifts with us, and the joint program we participated in that resulted in 80,000 door knocks in Harris County — made a difference. If you made a phone call or knocked a door or contributed financially to our work, you made a difference, and the national and statewide results can’t take that away.
One thing is clear — organized labor is the path forward. In unions, people have power to build a stable foundation for themselves and their families. Unions level the playing field and create a path to economic security for every working person.
The 62,000 members of the Gulf Coast AFL-CIO won’t be divided and we won’t back down. The labor movement will keep holding the line for every worker in the Texas Gulf Coast, no matter who sits in the Oval Office or who controls the gavel in the state legislature.
So keep your head up, take some time to heal, and then let’s do what the labor movement has always done — fight.
In solidarity,
Lacy Wolf, President
Hany Khalil, Executive Director
Jay Malone, Political Director
