Kicking off 2024: Victories in New York and North Carolina

UNITE HERE started the year off strong with two major victories in New York and North Carolina.

In New York, 30 UNITE HERE members knocked on 65,500 doors to help Tom Suozzi win the New York Congressional District 3 special election on February 13. This seat was previously held by Republican George Santos until he was expelled. This victory brings Democrats one seat closer to a majority in the House: 1 down, 4 more to go.

In North Carolina, 17 UNITE HERE members knocked on 15,000 doors to help Rodney Pierce – a champion of workers’ rights and abortion rights – win the State House District 27 primary election, defeating a longtime incumbent who had been voting with Republicans to fund anti-abortion groups, private school vouchers, and damaging tax cuts. Our canvassers – most of whom were first-time canvassers and food service workers at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport – are canvassing again in the General Election to elect a pro-union President, Governor, and State Superintendent for Public Instruction.

Virginia 2023: Stopping a Republican Trifecta in Virginia

UNITE HERE is changing the face of Virginia and proving that voters will turn out for pro-worker candidates – provided that UNITE HERE’s grassroots canvassing program that engages voters one-on-one is well-supported.

In January 2023, 20 UNITE HERE members knocked 9,000 doors for Aaron Rouse in VA-07’s special election, which Rouse won by just a few hundred votes.

During the 2023 Primary in State Senate District 13, 50 UNITE HERE canvassers knocked 68,000 doors for Lashrecse Aird – the largest canvassing operation in the race – helping her handily defeat Joe Morrissey on his home turf in Petersburg. We helped Aird win every county in the district and secure 70% of the votes in an electorate that is 75% Black and deeply working class.

For the 2023 general election, 180 UNITE HERE canvassers knocked over 230,000 doors to help Democrats take back the House and secure the Senate majority in Virginia. As they knocked doors in five State House districts and 3 State Senate Districts, UNITE HERE canvassers emphasized the connections between shared economic struggles and political activism through extensive, in-person conversations with voters.

Fending off the “Red Wave” in 2022

In 2022, many predicted a Republican sweep to reclaim power in the House and Senate. But the so-called “Red Wave” was fended off by the force of UNITE HERE’s door-to-door field program that secured victories in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

1,200 UNITE HERE canvassers knocked on 2.7 million doors in these four high-profile battleground states. Then when the Georgia Senate race went to a runoff, 500 UNITE HERE canvassers knocked on over 500,000 doors to re-elect Senator Raphael Warnock. Under the banner “Workers to the Front,” UNITE HERE’s 2022 midterm canvassing program was centered on the workers who lead its success — the people in the trenches talking to voters every day until Election Day about the issues they care about most.

U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada won in 2022 by 7,928 votes; the Analyst Institute estimates that we generated between 9,800 and 15,600 unique votes in Nevada.

In Arizona, Worker Power – dedicated to achieving economic justice and preserving democracy – generated nearly 7,000 low to mid-propensity votes for U.S. Senator Mark Kelly and Governor Katie Hobbs.

UNITE HERE Philly expanded into the Collar Counties in 2022 and led the largest door-to-door field operation in Pennsylvania, helping Governor Josh Shapiro and Senator John Fetterman achieve victory.

Virginia 2021: Laying the Groundwork

For Virginia’s 2021 general election, 200 UNITE HERE canvassers knocked on 230,000 doors for Terry McAuliffe for Governor in Northern Virginia, where he performed best, and other endorsed candidates. Our canvassers reached out to a broad cross-section of largely working-class, heavily POC and immigrant, infrequent and “swing” voters, hitting a pace of over 10,000 doors knocked per day.

This laid the groundwork for sweeping victories in the Virginia 2023 elections [hyperlink to Main Page].

Defeating Trump in 2020

Prior to the pandemic, we made a commitment to build on proven GOTV successes nationwide because Donald Trump had failed us.

Then in 2020, COVID-19 created one of the biggest crises in the Union’s history — with 98% of our members out of work. Despite the turmoil, with the support of our allies across the labor movement, UNITE HERE ran the country’s largest labor-led canvassing operation in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Florida to Take Back 2020 and defeat Trump.

1,700 hospitality workers reached the doors of 3 million voters across key battleground states to deliver the Presidency for Joe Biden. We identified 125,000 infrequent voters who didn’t vote in 2016 and 287,613 voters of color to support Joe Biden in 2020.

UNITE HERE continued this momentum with our Take Back the Senate campaign, with laid-off hospitality workers joining the team that turned Georgia blue in the January 2021 Georgia Senate runoffs. 1,000 hospitality workers knocked on over 1.5 million doors as part of a larger 10 million-knock statewide effort to get out the vote for Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

UNITE HERE’s program helped elect the most pro-labor president. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris saved the pensions of one million union members and retirees, securing 100% free COBRA healthcare for laid-off workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ensured an extraordinarily pro-union National Labor Relations Board and General Counsel.