Obama Wins Four More Years, Democrats Hold Senate

CWA Local 2222 steward and Next Generation member Brandon Dillard assembles a GOTV mailer for the presidential election, as well as key races in Maryland and Virginia.

Below: CWAers campaign for Democrat Joe Donnelly, who secured a surprising victory in Indiana’s Senate race.

Working men and women across the country have returned President Obama to the White House and kept the Senate in Democratic hands.

"Throughout this very long political campaign, at CWA, we've been clear that elections are about choices," said CWA President Larry Cohen. "Americans who want to ensure a place for working families in our economy made a clear choice in re-electing President Obama. Tens of thousands of our members, activists and volunteers, stepped up and did amazing work, not only in returning President Obama to office but in electing representatives who will stand with working Americans and not look for ways to cut programs that working families count on and more tax breaks for the wealthiest in our nation."

Atlanta RMC activists made more than 2,300 calls to active and retired CWA members.

Below: Missouri State Coordinator Kara Hutchason and CWA activists campaign for Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Obama will now enter his second term with 53 Democratic seats in the Senate, plus Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with Democrats. In addition, newly-elected Independent former Gov. Angus King of Maine may also caucus with the party next year. Democratic candidates toppled Republicans in Indiana and Massachusetts, and won reelection in Missouri, North Dakota and Montana where they were expected to lose.

In total, more than 15,000 CWA volunteers worked to support Obama, these key races and many critical ballot initiatives. CWA's state coordinators were fanned out in 38 states with exceptionally active members in Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Missouri, New Mexico, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Large memberships in California, Texas, New York and New Jersey also flexed their political muscles. In Connecticut, members of CWA Local 1298 and other CWAers did tremendous work in electing Chris Murphy to the U.S. Senate.

"This election goes to show that while money spent by corporations was a major threat to working people in this country, our commitment, our unity and our organization were able to overcome that by talking to members and engaging them in this fight," said Rafael Navar, CWA's national political director.

CWA had one of its strongest member-to-member outreach campaigns in Indiana, helping Democrat Rep. Joe Donnelly clinch a Senate seat once regarded as safe for Republicans. Activists were strategically placed throughout the state, hitting worksites with leaflets twice a week. And volunteers made a dogged effort to get members registered to vote and to the polls early.

"It was a nail biter for a while, but once they called it for Joe it was just an eruption downtown," said state coordinator Angie Schritter, who alone assembled more than 2,000 information packets for the get-out-the-vote effort. "We wanted it so bad. So many people worked so hard to get Joe into the Senate — door knocks, phone calls. It was pretty incredible. It was deafening. Joe has been a longtime friend of CWA, labor and the working class."

In Ohio, thousands of CWA activists, working with the Stand Up for Ohio coalition, started more than a year ago by getting 1.3 million signatures to block the Republican plan to destroy public workers' collective bargaining rights. This year, they kept that momentum going to reelect Obama and Sen. Sherrod Brown, a champion of working people and CWA's call center legislation. CWA Local 1122 even sent a busload of New Yorkers to Cleveland the weekend before the election to lend the swing state extra manpower. Read about that here.

In Virginia, volunteers leafleted hundreds of worksites across the states, knocked on thousands of doors in labor walks and made thousands of phone calls to support Obama and Tim Kaine for Senate. For weeks members of CWA Local 2204 and IUE-CWA Local 82162 had been hitting the pavement in support of the now senator elect.