The United Auto Workers is taking a stand in the 2024 election, launching a nationwide effort to mobilize its network of 1 million retired and active workers to vote for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election. The move to influence these voters in key battleground states comes after UAW president Shawn Fain endorsed the vice president last month.
But as the polls show an increasingly tight race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, where do union workers—not just their bosses—stand?
According to pollster Frank Luntz, the average union member, excluding government and teachers unions, breaks for the 45th president.
Luntz explained that these union workers do not consider themselves working class (the way upper brass describes them) since they live paycheck-to-paycheck. And for the first time in his decades of holding focus groups, union members are saying publicly that union leadership doesn’t speak for them.
“Trump has been successful among those people,” Luntz said. “I assure you, Donald Trump is doing better among the average union member, not teachers unions and not the unions for government—but everybody else, the trades, people who work with their hands—he’s doing better among them than any Republican has done in decades.”
LUNTZ: President Trump is doing better with union members than any Republican in decades.
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 14, 2024
In my focus groups, union members say union leaders "don't speak for me." pic.twitter.com/En1mWP6C3H
Which side has the advantage with the union vote?
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 14, 2024
I joined @AbbyDPhillip's panel to discuss labor politics and how they'll factor into the 2024 presidential race.
You can watch the whole segment on YouTube now: https://t.co/kBFfx3hOvd pic.twitter.com/tOXGLv5WEy