Labor Voters Helped Build Winning Coalitions
Nov. 9, 2016
News Release
Contacts: Mark York, (817)689-3365 (Dallas); Tim Smith, (817)246-2909
John Patrick, Rick Levy or Ed Sills, (512)477-6195 (Texas AFL-CIO)
Labor Voters Helped Build Winning Coalitions
Block-walks, Phone Banks, Mail, Social Media Fueled Turnout
Members of labor unions in Texas took advantage of a changing Texas political climate to help build winning progressive coalitions in the Houston area, leaders of Central Labor Councils representing Dallas and Tarrant counties said today.
Mark York of the Dallas CLC and Tim Smith of the Tarrant CLC said the victory by Victoria Neave – the labor-backed candidate for Texas House District 107 – was the product of a painstaking process that saw to it that union voters heard about the importance of voting for candidates backed by the Committee on Political Education (COPE).
[caption caption="Lorraine Montemayor and Sherron Molina worked on the union election program"]
“The national picture was bleak, but in Dallas and Fort Worth, working people made advances on Election Day,” York said. “In DFW, union members knocked on more than 10,000 doors, targeting nearly 15,000 working families to turn out in our key targeted districts. As is usually the case, we believe union members and our families turned out disproportionately to our numbers.”
“In 2016,” Smith said, “our Central Labor Councils joined together to focus on driving up turnout of members who did not have a history of voting regularly. If you were a union member in the DFW area, you very likely heard from us several times, and we have long known that member-to-member communications highlighting a working families message are effective in turning out votes.”
“Union members alone cannot form a majority, but in DFW in 2016 we spoke up together with allies to show it is possible to build a winning coalition,” Smith said.
“By the way,” York said, “our block-walking program confirmed what we have known for years: Union voters are concerned primarily with kitchen-table issues. The biggest question our members ask is, ‘How is a candidate for office going to affect my ability to support my family?’ While there are different ways of arriving at an answer, our members do come together on what the basic questions should be.”
Texas AFL-CIO President John Patrick said the labor movement’s Get Out the Vote operations in and around Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and other parts of the state helped bring about a sea change from the results of the 2014 election, Patrick said.
“This election marks a new era in coordinated campaigning for labor in Texas. The Dallas and Tarrant County Central Labor Councils worked together on block-walks of mutual interest. The Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation covered ground that used to be covered by several CLCs. The entire labor movement arrived at priorities in cooperative fashion.”
“We appreciate the thousands of volunteer hours put in by union members around the state. The labor movement knocked on at least 50,000 doors and made many more phone calls and mail contacts during the campaign. On social media, the labor campaign generated more than half a million impressions across several platforms, all in service of turning out union members, family members and allies. What we did this year laid solid groundwork for the future. We honor our affiliates who worked overtime to take our Get Out the Vote program to the next level.”
"The conversations we had with union members were not merely about candidates,” Patrick said. “From the minimum wage to paid sick leave, from improving public education to equal pay for men and women, issues that affect our workers’ everyday lives took precedence. The candidates we endorsed were on board with our agenda to provide a fair shot for every working family won tough races in 2016.”
“Labor’s vote made a major difference in Texas. Amid a tragic national result, Hillary Clinton’s performance here, coming within a margin we have not seen lately, set the stage for pickups in congressional, legislative and local races around the state,” Patrick said. “Union members seized on the opportunity, and we are proud the 2016 election set a new standard for statewide union participation.”
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