Working families across upstate NY are celebrating the come-from-waaaay-behind  victory by AFL-CIO endorsed candidate Kathy Hochul in yesterday’s NY-26 special election.  Hochul ran and won as a champion for working families – protecting Medicare and Social Security, fighting for good jobs here at home and standing up for collective bargaining.    Pundits and other commentators are all talking this morning about this as a major defeat for Speaker Boehner and other Congressional leaders who fought desperately to hold onto this historically republican seat; we know the reason Hochul won is because she stayed true to her record and roots as a champion for working families.  Hochul comes from a steelworker family, and celebrated her victory last night at a UAW hall – she will be a strong voice and vote for jobs in this Congress.

The NY AFL-CIO, working closely with the Western Area ALF and Rochester and Genesee Valley Area Labor Federations, worked an aggressive ground mobilization effort over the last several weeks to help lift Hochul to this  historic win.  Hochul embraced support from labor, and made the rounds at worksites and local union meetings, as well as special CLC meetings/phone banks/walks. By the numbers:

Mail --  25,000 pieces

Phones --  30,000 phone calls (ID & GOTV)

Robos --  50,000 robo calls

Walks --  20,000 doors hit in walks coordinated by ALF, CLCs and locals; primarily on Saturdays but GOTV walks happened last 4 days Local union mail (List called twice): SEIU 1199, USW, UAW, IAM, NYSUT, CSEA, PEF, NALC, IBT, IUPAT, UFCW, IBEW, APWU, Sheetmetal

Local union letters and worksite fliers:  30,000

Special thanks to AFSCME DC 37 & NALC for their release staff in the final days; in addition to great efforts on the member to member mobilization effort,  CWA and other unions also contributed to IE efforts shoring up Hochul, and clarifying Corwin’s support for the Ryan budget guts to Medicare and other government programs.  

Thanks for all your efforts in this race, to mobilize your local unions and members on the issues and the importance of voting in this special.  Working families’ voices were heard loud and clear last night in upstate New York, and will  only get stronger in Wisconsin, California, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia,  New Jersey and every other state and community holding elections – special and regular – this year.