Though many votes are still being counted, we have much to be proud of in Election 2020. The New Jersey Labor Movement led the charge in saving America’s democracy.
And even before a winner for the White House can finally be declared, it’s clear that the untiring, vigorous efforts of our Labor Movement got Joseph R. Biden Jr. more votes than any other presidential candidate in our nation’s history!
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO thanks the Central Labor Councils, Building Trade Councils, state associations, affiliated unions and especially the thousands of union volunteers from every sector of labor who walked, texted and phoned right up until the minute the polls closed to ensure brothers and sisters in our state and battleground states knew their future was at stake in this election.
New Jersey Labor-Endorsed candidates for U.S. Senate and 11 of 12 House seats were victorious, with the tight race in the 2nd Congressional District still undecided.
Labor Candidates notched 39 wins, with two candidates in a December runoff and six races still being counted. As of today, the Labor Candidates Program has achieved 1,130 election victories.
A Digital Campaign
The New Jersey AFL-CIO made improvements to digital campaign tools, and we can be proud that these upgrades were adopted by the national AFL-CIO.
Coordinated by the CLCs, union members tallied 407,134 Peer-to-Peer texts, and more than 96% of those were read by union recipients. At the end of Election Season and on Election Day itself, GOTV texts to battlegrounds in Georgia, Indiana and Pennsylvania totaled almost 100,000!
Brothers and sisters in Virtual Phone Banks throughout New Jersey made 2,102 calls to Wisconsin and talked with 161 union households for an 8% connection rate, and made 10,161 calls to Pennsylvania, connecting with 1,012 union households for an amazing 10% rate!
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO created the cutting-edge CODE-U Program (Committee on Digital Empowerment – Union), a set of bite-sized facts and figures on Election 2020-related issues. Every week for more than five months, affiliates received CODE-U emails, texts, website materials, tweets and Facebook memes targeted to working families and ready to use right out of the box.
Protecting Our Values
Through Contactless Literature Drops, door-to-door Labor-to-Labor volunteers effectively got out the word about Labor-Endorsed candidates, including our 50 Labor Candidates. These brothers and sisters learned their skills at the Labor Candidates School – virtual this year – and then ran for Congress, Freeholder/Commissioner, Mayor and Council, and Board of Education. Their dedication to their state and hometowns is a great reflection of their union values of solidarity, fairness and hard work.
Throughout Election Season and the vote-counting period, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO stayed in close contact with every Board of Elections and every campaign, and remained vigilant that this election was fair, honest and secret – and it was! – because that’s how democracy works, and we will not go back.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO’s officers and staff congratulate and thank every brother and sister who contributed time, energy and ingenuity to this historic and unusual campaign. These victories belong to all of us, because we worked together and won together.