Election Update

Working families were the big winners in this week's elections. In Virginia, New Jersey, Maine, and other states and cities, working people and progressive voters rejected the harmful policy proposals and divisive message of President Trump and Republican candidates.

In Virginia, voters elected Ralph Northam governor, Justin Fairfax lieutenant governor, and Mark Herring attorney general. In a big turnaround that surprised pundits, voters elected at least 15 Democratic representatives to the House of Delegates who will put the concerns of working people and ordinary Americans first, and not be beholden to corporate and right wing interests.

Governor-elect Northam will help Virginia's working families succeed by ensuring fair wages and real opportunity to get a good education. He rejects the trickle-down economic and tax policies that the Republicans are pushing.

CWA members throughout the state walked neighborhoods and staffed phone banks to help turn out the vote for state delegate candidates as well as Northam, Fairfax, and Herring.

CWA members with Governor-elect Ralph Northam (center) at a labor walk in Richmond.

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In New Jersey, by electing Phil Murphy governor, voters elected a champion for working and middle class families, something the state hasn’t seen for eight years. He has outlined a program that will create a stronger and fairer economy for everyone.

Phil Murphy understands that the role of government isn’t to enrich corporations and the wealthy, but to work for all of us, by ensuring that our schools have proper funding, that working people aren’t exploited, and that all our communities thrive.

CWA members in New Jersey canvassed door-to-door and mobilized a massive get-out-the-vote effort to elect Phil Murphy.

CWAers knocked on doors across the state to get-out-the-vote in support of Phil Murphy (second from left) for Governor.

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Election Roundup

• In Youngstown, Ohio, former CWA Local 4300 executive board member Tito Brown was elected mayor, CWA-endorsed John Cranley was re-elected-Mayor of Cincinnati, and CWA Retiree and former CWA Local 4100 President Brenda Jones was re-elected President of Detroit City Council.
   
• In New York, CWA activists and allies helped defeat a push for a constitutional convention that could have resulted in lost benefits and rights for working people.
   
• In Maine, voters rejected the efforts of Trump and Governor LePage to undermine the Affordable Care Act and deny health benefits to as many Americans as possible by voting to extend Medicaid health care coverage to at least 80,000 more Maine residents. LePage vetoed several measures by the state legislature that would have provided the health care benefits; this week the voters set LePage straight.

Republicans plan to pay for huge tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy by cutting programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and others that working families rely on. Voters made clear last night that they reject this approach, and will make their voices heard again in 2018.

• In Charlotte, N.C., CWA-endorsed Braxton Winston won an at-large seat on the Charlotte City Council At-Large.
   
• Women, people of color, and LGBTQ people turned out in record numbers, both as candidates and at the polls. That made the difference in numerous races, especially in Virginia where Democrats – many of them women – won at least 15 seats in the House of Delegates, with four races still too close to call.