The US labor movement is having a banner election year.
More than three dozen nominees for open House and Senate races across the US have backgrounds as labor union representatives or members.
Several nominees are running in heavily blue districts, making it almost certain they will win the seat in November’s midterms, while others are in highly contested races that are likely to determine control of the House and possibly the Senate. Most are Democrats, though some are running as independents.
The early success of so many candidates with ties to labor comes as Democrats work to rebuild their support among working-class voters, centering their campaign messaging around affordability issues.
But the messenger matters, too.
“In a political environment that’s been dominated by wealthy elites for decades, union candidates provide a level of trust and credibility that’s simply unmatched,” Steve Smith, a spokesperson for the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, told the Guardian. “These candidates are at long last returning the levers of power to the people.”
A 2024 study by Cal State and UCLA researchers found working-class voters are 6.4 percentage points more likely to prefer a political candidate with a working-class occupation over one with an upper-class occupation.
Yet a 2026 report by the Center for Working-Class Politics found working-class candidates make up just 8-14% of Democratic and 5-8% of Republican congressional candidates.
Union candidates invoked pro-worker themes 159% more than non-union candidates, the report found. Running more union members as candidates, its authors argued, could increase the representation ordinary Americans have in Congress, by elevating people who can speak to and deliver on issues that affect the working class.
“Voters want elected leaders who understand the struggles working people face in an economy rigged against us,” Smith said. “In every area of the country, at every level, union members are running for office and winning because they bring lived experience in leveling the playing field for workers and creating a brighter future for our families.”
Americans overwhelmingly favor labor unions, according to recent annual Gallup polls, with 68% approving labor unions in 2025. But union density has been on a decline in recent decades, from more than 30% in the 1950s to 10% in 2025, correlating to a drastic increase in wealth and income inequality in the US.
In 2024, Donald Trump sought to woo labor leaders and blue-collar voters with populist trade promises. But exit polls and surveys conducted after the presidential election found little evidence that union members had shifted toward Trump.
According to the VoteCast survey conducted for the Associated Press and Fox News after the 2024 election, union members preferred Harris over Trump by 16% in 2024, 57% to 41% for Trump, matching Biden’s 16% lead over Trump with union households in 2020.
Trump was formerly a union member, but he resigned from the Screen Actors Guild in February 2021 rather than facing disciplinary charges from the union for violating its constitution regarding his actions and role in inciting the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.
In his resignation letter, Trump wrote “Who cares!” and accused the union of never doing anything for him. In response to his resignation, the union issued a two-word statement: “Thank you.”
Meet the Senate and House candidates identified as having labor union backgrounds who are running to join the roughly 25 current members of Congress who have previously worked in the labor movement or in a job represented by a union.
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Todd Achilles
Candidate for US Senate, Idaho
Independent Todd Achilles, a former American Federation of Teachers member from his work as a public policy professor and lecturer, is running for the US Senate in a race where the Democratic nominee withdrew in July.
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Abdul El-Sayed
Candidate for US Senate, Michigan
Abdul El-Sayed is a former American Association of University Professors member and other higher education unions from his time working as a professor and scholar at Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and American University. The union made its first ever national political endorsement in endorsing his Senate campaign.
In an interview with the Guardian in July, El-Sayed explained his critique of the economy and the impact of concentrated corporate power.
“If the markets actually worked the way they’re supposed to, you might have some efficient movement of money,” he said. “The problem is, we don’t live in capitalism, we live in oligopoly.”
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Troy Jackson
Candidate for US Senate, Maine
Troy Jackson worked several past union jobs as a member of the unions of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), the Machinists (IAM), Operating Engineers (IUOE), United Auto Workers (UAW), and Laborers’ International Union of North America (Liuna).
“Everything Troy fights for comes from his working-class roots as a logger from Allagash and the 1998 blockade, when he stood up to powerful landowners undercutting Maine workers,” Jackson’s campaign manager, Dan Gottlieb, said in a statement.
Gottlieb added: “Mainers know whose side Troy is on: theirs. For him, solidarity isn’t a slogan – it’s how he’s lived his life.”
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Angie Nixon
Candidate for US Senate, Florida
Angie Nixon is a state legislator in Florida and the Democratic nominee for Senate in a special election to fill Marco Rubio’s vacated seat. She previously has worked as a union organizer, directing the Florida Public Services Union’s (FPSU) higher education campaign.
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Dan Osborn
Candidate for US Senate, Nebraska
Dan Osborn, a former president of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) Local 50G, which represents Kellogg’s workers, is running for the US Senate in Nebraska as an independent. He faces Republican Pete Ricketts, the heir to billionaire Joe Ricketts, co-founder of TD Ameritrade.
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James Talarico
Candidate for US Senate, Texas
As a public school teacher, James Talarico was a member of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel. He is also a longtime member of the Texas State Employees Union (TSEU – CWA Local 6186).
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Colin Allred
Candidate for Texas’s 33rd congressional district
The former congressman Colin Allred is running again this cycle in a newly redrawn Democratic-dominant district in Texas. He is a former member of the NFL Players Association, the union representing National Football League players.
Chris Backemeyer
Candidate for Nebraska’s first congressional district
Chris Backemeyer, a former US state department employee and the Democratic nominee for Nebraska’s first congressional district, is a member of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 1534.
Mitchell Berman
Candidate for Wisconsin’s first congressional district
Mitchell Berman worked a union job in college at UPS, where he was a member of Teamsters Local 344. As a nurse, he has worked several union jobs including as a member of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals and National Nurses United.
“Coming from a working-class background, understanding what folks are going through [and] having walked a mile in my neighbor’s shoes gives me the ability to look at legislation from the perspective of having some empathy and understanding for what people are dealing with,” Berman said in August.
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Bob Brooks
Candidate for Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional district
Bob Brooks, a former president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, is running to flip one of the state’s swing districts.
“We need to change who’s representing us and who’s making the rules and the laws,” Brooks said in June. “That’s what inspired me to do this. I think we need more everyday people down there, because everyday people are the ones that are struggling.”
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Connie Chan
Candidate for California’s 11th congressional district
A former member of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 21, Connie Chan is in a general election runoff to replace Nancy Pelosi’s vacated seat in California’s 11th congressional district.
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Darializa Avila Chevalier
Candidate for New York’s 13th congressional district
In one of the biggest primary upsets in 2026, Darializa Avila Chevalier defeated Adriano Espaillat, the incumbent congressman and chair of the Congressional Hispanic caucus, and she is expected to easily win the general election in a district that leans heavily in favor of Democrats.
She is a union member of the United Auto Workers Local 2325.
“That really changed the course of my education and my PhD program, to be able to be part of a union that fought for me, my work conditions, my wage, and made it possible for me to continue my program,” she said in June, reflecting on her experience joining the union. “I was able to teach at a pace that was manageable, right, with a workload that was manageable, but also be paid enough to actually lead a dignified life.”
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Carmela Conroy
Candidate for Washington’s fifth congressional district
Carmela Conroy was a union member represented by the American Foreign Service Association.
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Sam Forstag
Candidate for Montana’s at-large congressional district
Sam Forstag served as the vice-president of the Forest Service Council Local 60, an arm of the National Federation of Federal Employees.
“There is genuinely a fundamental lack of representation for working people in federal office right now, and that has serious, substantive effects on what kind of policies they actually prioritize and what they pass,” Forstag said in February. “The primary function of government is to step in when the market is not meeting a need and to make people’s lives materially better. And it seems like some people at the national level forgot about that.”
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Chris Gallant
Candidate for New York’s first congressional district
Chris Gallant served as the president of his local union with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
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Vince George
Candidate for West Virginia’s first congressional district
Vince George was a member of the West Virginia Education Association and is a retired union member of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (Afscme).
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Bob Harvie
Candidate for Pennsylvania’s first congressional district
A teacher for more than 20 years, Bob Harvie is a former member of the Bucks County Technical High School Education Association.
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Missi Hesketh
Candidate for Missouri’s seventh congressional district
Missi Hesketh is a teacher and a member the National Education Association and a former member of the Missouri State Teachers Association.
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Bill Hill
Candidate for Alaska’s at-large congressional district
Bill Hill, an independent, is a former union construction worker. The leading Democrat in the race dropped out and endorsed his campaign.
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Amanda Hollowell
Candidate for Georgia’s first congressional district
Amanda Hollowell was the state director for 9to5 in Georgia, a worker-led organization that arose from women-led worker organizing in the 1970s.
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Jake Johnson
Candidate for Minnesota’s first congressional district
A high school math teacher, Jake Johnson served as an official with his local teachers’ union.
“To me, a lot of the great things that happen in public schools happen because of unions. We’re the ones fighting for smaller class sizes. We’re the ones fighting for reasonable wages,” Johnson said in July. “That’s happening because of teachers’ unions. We’re the ones that are raising the bar as far as teacher quality.”
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Tanya Lloyd
Candidate for Texas’s 27th congressional district
Tanya Lloyd is a former union member of the Texas American Federation of Teachers.
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Donavan McKinney
Candidate for Michigan’s 13th congressional district
A former organizer with the Service Employees International Union, Donavan McKinney defeated incumbent representative Shri Thanedar in the Democratic primary and is expected to easily win the district that favors Democrats by 22 percentage points, according to Cook Political Report’s Partisan Voting Index.
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Analilia Mejia
Candidate for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district
Analilia Mejia, who won a special election in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district in April, is a former union organizer with the Service Employees International Union, Unite Here, and United Food and Commercial Workers.
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Jena Nelson
Candidate for Oklahoma’s fifth congressional district
The former Oklahoma teacher of the year in 2020, Jena Nelson is a teachers’ union member. The district last flipped blue under Trump’s first term in 2018, but Republicans took back the district in 2020.
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Richard Pan
Candidate for California’s sixth congressional district
Richard Pan, a pediatrician, is a member of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists – Afscme Local 206.
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Brian Poindexter
Candidate for Ohio’s seventh congressional district
An ironworker, apprenticeship instructor and former organizer, Brian Poindexter is running to unseat Max Miller, the congressman who is facing calls to resign due to domestic assault allegations from his ex-wife, the daughter of Republican senator Bernie Moreno, and similar allegations made against him by Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary under Trump’s first administration.
“People are working harder and harder. We’re getting less and less and we’re getting more and more of the burden,” Poindexter said. “I’d like to see an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy. We need to build an economy that rewards work, not just wealth.”
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Chris Rabb
Candidate for Pennsylvania’s third congressional district
Chris Rabb helped organize adjuncts at Temple University with the United Academics of Philadelphia, while he worked as an adjunct professor at the university.
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Kyle Rable
Candidate for Texas’s 19th congressional district
Kyle Rable is a member of the Texas State Employees Union, CWA Local 6186.
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Lauren Reinhold
Candidate for Kansas’s first congressional district
A former federal employee, Lauren Reinhold served as a union steward and officer while working at the Social Security Administration and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
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Ceretta Smith
Candidate for Georgia’s 12th congressional district
Ceretta Smith is a past president and current member of AFGE Local 2017 and also serves as the fair practices coordinator and women’s coordinator for AFGE Council 172, which represents Defense Commissary Agency workers. The US army veteran has worked as federal employee for more than 20 years.
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Katy Padilla Stout
Candidate for Texas’s 23rd congressional district
Katy Padilla Stout is a former teachers’ union member with the American Federation of Teachers, which has endorsed her campaign.
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Trina Swanson
Candidate for Minnesota’s eighth congressional district
Trina Swanson was a member of the American Federation of Government Employees while she worked at US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). She is running against the Republican incumbent representative, Pete Stauber.
“Northern Minnesota taught her that unions strengthen our middle class,” Swanson’s campaign website states.
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Claire Valdez
Candidate for New York’s seventh congressional district
Claire Valdez won the Democratic primary for New York’s seventh congressional district after the retirement of Nydia Velázquez. Valdez served as an organizer with United Auto Workers Local 2110 at Columbia University.
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Mai Vang
Candidate for California’s seventh congressional district
A union member of the California Faculty Association, progressive Mai Vang edged past the 82-year-old Democratic incumbent Doris Matsui in the primary for California’s seventh congressional district. They will face each other again in the November general election.
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Randy Villegas
Candidate for California’s 22nd congressional district
Randy Villegas is a former United Auto Workers Local 4811 member, which represents higher-education workers.
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Brandon Wade
Candidate for Oklahoma’s second congressional district
Brandon Wade is an official with International Union of Operating Engineers Local 351, where he has held several different roles while working more than 20 years in the oil and gas industry.
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Marni von Wilpert
Candidate for California’s 48th congressional district
Marni Von Wilpert is a former NLRB attorney who helped write the comprehensive labor law reform legislation, the Protecting the Right to Organize (Pro) Act, and a member of the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union while working at the Economic Policy Institute.
“One of my biggest priorities for running for Congress myself is to finish this work, to come back as a member of Congress and finally get labor law reform across the finish line,” von Wilpert said.
Her Republican opponent, Jim Desmond, worked as a pilot for Delta Air Lines, where he was a member of the pilots’ union, Air Line Pilots Association, but has opposed unions on project labor agreements.
