Phoenix, AZ – Today after the US Senate race in Arizona was called nearly a full week after polls closed, UNITE HERE claimed it as the second successful US Senate seat flipped in large part by the extensive year long organizing ground game of the union.

“I could not be more proud today of the year-long efforts of hundreds of UNITE HERE members in Arizona that have successfully flipped a second US Senate seat for working families these Midterms,” said D. Taylor, International President of UNITE HERE. “The real story of the 2018 Midterm elections is the role of labor and the resurgence of working class families as not only a reliable voting bloc, but also a grassroots army to be reckoned with in swing ‘right-to-work’ states across America”, said President Taylor. “UNITE HERE members knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors here in Arizona this year in our largest political program ever in this state, just as we knocked on nearly 400,000 doors in Nevada and won battleground races in New Jersey. Hospitality workers and more importantly all working families enter the 2020 elections with a position of power we haven’t had for many years.”

Arizona became the latest top-tier US Senate seat that UNITE HERE ran a major political program in to flip this cycle, with the too-close-to-call race only decided hours ago today in favor of Democratic challenger Kyrsten Sinema. The efforts there and in Nevada, Florida, Alaska, New Jersey, and more by UNITE HERE and community allied groups like CASE and AZ Wins are the largest political program to date by North America’s largest hospitality worker union.

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UNITE HERE represents 270,000 members working in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries in the U.S. and Canada.