Trumka: Record Labor Voter Mobilization Emphasizes Pocketbook Issues
Organized labor’s record voter mobilization efforts this year, which started earlier than ever before for a mid-term election, emphasized pocketbook issues and – says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka – will produce huge “momentum at the ballot box” on Nov. 6.
It also produced a record number of unionists running for everything from city council and county commissioner to Congress and governor, Trumka and Julie Greene, the federation’s mobilizing – and politics – director said in an Oct. 30 telephone press conference.
The two gave their outlook, which did not include predictions in many specific races, as the general election campaign entered its final week, roiled by non-pocketbook issues and a flood of corporate and GOP “dark money” in political ads, most with unnamed sponsors and lots of mud.
The non-pocketbook issues include an anti-Semitic murder of 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, a white racist gunning down two African-American shoppers, and 14 pipe bombs sent by a strong supporter of right-wing GOP President Donald Trump to Democrats Trump has slandered and slammed.