Politics for Long-Term, Grassroots Organizing and Leadership Development

Each year, elections are getting harder to win. Races in battleground states are won by razor-thin margins. In an effort to make the critical difference, UNITE HERE runs the largest labor-led independent canvassing program in the country. Our canvassers inspire working people to vote and make the decisive difference in close elections.

This canvassing program is part of a decades-long investment in organizing and leadership development year-round, not just during election season. It functions as a leadership development opportunity for working class people to take on new roles, lead teams, and exercise more power in the civic process.

During elections, UNITE HERE members and their friends and family receive rigorous organizing training and deploy as door-to-door canvassers. After elections, they continue building power for working people by organizing workers in the hospitality industry. This moves us closer to the vision of leadership we most value and need: diverse, powerful, and representative of our membership in every way.

UNITE HERE canvassers are highly effective at connecting with and mobilizing voters because they are union members: housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, and concessions workers who have won middle-class wages and top-notch health insurance through one-on-one grassroots organizing. They knock on doors and organize voters like they organize their coworkers.

UNITE HERE is proud to be a diverse union, representing over 275,000 workers who are mostly women and people of color from over 200 countries. As we construct a movement to enable people of all backgrounds to achieve greater equality and opportunity, we must build power on all fronts — including politics.

“It’s Up To Us”

In 2020, it was up to us to lead the way and defeat Trump by building the nation’s largest labor-led canvassing program. In 2022, it was up to us to step up again to help win the Senate.

In 2024, it was again up to us. UNITE HERE ran an ambitious field program to win the Presidency, Senate, House, and other down ballot races in ten states: Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, Maryland, California, and New York.

Over 2,000 UNITE HERE canvassers knocked on the doors of over 4.3 million voters. They had over 500,000 individual conversations in ten states and did their part in an attempt to deliver the presidency for Kamala Harris. Though the outcome of that election was not what we had hoped, there were bright spots: UNITE HERE canvassers played a critical role in electing the leaders across the country, up and down the ballot.

Working together, we will keep fighting for a country where all of us can thrive.

Our Track Record

UNITE HERE has a national reputation for executing exceptionally effective canvassing operations that make the decisive difference in close elections nationwide. Read more about our track record.

Your donation will help protect democracy and workers’ rights and support the training and leadership development of working-class people.