Minnesota’s 2026 Election was Union-Made

Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham made the following statement on the 2026 General Election; where Minnesotans elected every statewide Labor-endorsed candidate, sent pro-worker majorities to both the State House and Senate, and put an unprecedented number of union member candidates into office:

Despite an armed occupation the past winter and continued attempts to intimidate and divide us all year, working Minnesotans voted in record numbers Tuesday to take their power back from the Trump administration and its allies to hold wealthy elites and corporations accountable.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Labor 2026 member-to-member campaign was once again one of our state’s largest independent political programs. Labor 2026 engaged union members and their families in communities across Minnesota through one-on-one conversations at their doors, on their phones, and at the workplace and through millions of digital ad views and tens of thousands of pieces of union mail.

Labor’s independent campaign work this year focused on both the battleground districts where many campaigns invested resources and in areas that others ignored, such as helping to elect Rochester Education Association member Simon Glaser in Senate District 24.

The Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Union Member Candidate Training Program continued to send more people with working class values and lived experience as workers to public office, with 21 graduates winning their local and state elections. Union Member Candidates elected to new offices yesterday include Congressman-elect Jake Johnson (Education Minnesota), Senators-elect Chris Ford (IAFF), Simon Glaser (Education Minnesota), Robyn Gulley (SEIU), and Representative-elect Jess Lewis (AFSA), while Representatives Mary Frances Clardy (Education Minnesota), David Gottfried (SAG-AFTRA), Kim Hicks (MAPE), and Kari Rehrauer (TEMPO) were all re-elected.

With a pro-worker trifecta at the State Capitol and new majorities in Congress, we expect our elected leaders to deliver for the working people who voted them. The Minnesota AFL-CIO and our affiliated unions will be releasing our 2027 Legislative Priorities in the coming weeks that will include policies to level the playing field between workers and management like legislation to make striking workers eligible for unemployment insurance. At the federal level, we expect a renewed push to address broken labor law and support workers exercising their rights to form unions by passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.

As we head into multiple recounts in Minnesota and across the country, the Labor Movement stands ready to protect our democracy and ensure every eligible voter has had their voice heard and that every vote is counted.