This Midterm Election working people made our voices heard and labor-endorsed candidates across Massachusetts and the country won! We know that during these times when our rights as working and middle-class Americans, immigrants, people of color, and women are under attack, it is crucial that we stand together and that our voices are front and center in the public arena. This year, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO endorsed a slate of candidates and ballot questions in state races to advance a pro-worker, pro-family agenda, strategically focusing on union member candidates and candidates that will work for all of the people of the Commonwealth. Our newly elected and re-elected candidates will increase our voice in Massachusetts.
This midterm, we elected many union members to the State House, part of a wave of over 800 union members (and counting) elected nationwide. A major congratulations to Senator Paul Feeney (Bristol & Norfolk), future Representative Tram Nguyen (18th Essex), future Representative Pete Capano (11th Essex), Representative Jim Hawkins (2nd Bristol), Representative Tackey Chan (2nd Norfolk) and future Representative Patrick Kearney (4th Plymouth).
We’re incredibly proud of the work of our labor volunteers who spent countless hours working on these campaigns, and the campaigns of all of our labor-endorsed candidates.
We are incredibly proud of our brothers and sisters in labor across the Commonwealth who fought alongside the Massachusetts Nurses Association to pass Ballot Question 1 for safe patient limits. The Hospital Administration poured millions of dollars into confusing the voters of Massachusetts, but we stood together on the right side of history and we should be proud of that. We are also celebrating the victories of the passage of Ballot Question 2 to develop fair campaign finance law, and especially Ballot Question 3 to protect the rights of our transgender people coworkers and neighbors.