{"id":2123178,"date":"2023-12-12T18:01:02","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T23:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gov-unions-spent-over-half-a-billion-dollars-backing-democrats-the-left-during-midterm-elections-report\/"},"modified":"2023-12-12T18:05:13","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T23:05:13","slug":"gov-unions-spent-over-half-a-billion-dollars-backing-democrats-the-left-during-midterm-elections-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gov-unions-spent-over-half-a-billion-dollars-backing-democrats-the-left-during-midterm-elections-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Government unions spent $500M supporting Democrats, the left during midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgov-unions-spent-over-half-a-billion-dollars-backing-democrats-the-left-during-midterm-elections-report%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2123178&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>The\u200c Power of Public Sector Unions: How \u2064Union Dues Fund Democrat Causes<\/h2>\n<p>The four largest public sector \u200dunions \u2063spent nearly $700 million \u200cbacking Democrats\u2064 and leftist causes during last year\u2019s elections, with nearly 60% of the \u2063funds\u2062 coming from union dues, according to an analysis\u2062 of spending \u200cby \u200bthe Commonwealth Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Of\u2063 the\u200b $708.8 million spent on\u2062 politics during \u200dthe 2022 midterm \u2062elections by the National\u2064 Education Association (NEA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), American Federation of \u2064State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and\u200c the\u2063 Service Employees International Union \u2062(SEIU),\u2064 about 96% of the money \u2062went to Democrat\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/amid-threats-of-corporate-donation-withdrawals-gop-senate-fund-hauls-in-8-3-million\/\" title=\"Amid Threats Of Corporate Donation Withdrawals, GOP Senate Fund Hauls In .3 Million\">political action committees<\/a> or other leftist causes, the Commonwealth Foundation found.<\/p>\n<p>The four unions combined\u2062 outspent \u200bthe defense, transportation, and\u200b construction industries. \u201cAny progressive \u2064organization that you can think of is probably getting\u2064 something from \u200dthe unions,\u201d Commonwealth\u200b Foundation Senior Fellow for Labor Policy\u200c David Osborne told The Daily\u200d Wire.<\/p>\n<p>Millions \u2063of union PAC \u200ddollars went toward leftist groups like For Our Future and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-hawley-files-counter-complaint-against-senate-dems\/\" title=\"Sen. Hawley files counter-complaint against Senate Dems\">dark money group<\/a> \u200bthe Sixteen Thirty\u200c Fund, as well as Democrat candidates like Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock and Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Josh\u2063 Shapiro.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s no surprise\u200b that unions overwhelmingly\u2062 back\u2063 Democrats and Democrat causes, Osborne that many union members likely didn\u2019t\u2063 know how much their dues were being spent on the \u201cpet political \u200cprojects\u201d of union leaders rather\u2064 than representation for members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat unions often try to\u200c hide is the fact that membership dues\u200c can also be used for politics,\u201d he said. \u201cThe union doesn\u2019t really\u200d have to tell membership what it\u2019s [the money] going to go to. Doesn\u2019t have to take a \u2062vote on it. By and large, what they do is,\u2064 take all that money and \u2063then shovel a bunch \u2062of \u200dit \u200bover to \u200ba\u200d super-PAC, sometimes it\u2019s affiliated with the union so that they can do all kinds of political spending that members \u2062may never find out about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to\u2064 the report, about 57% of the total money spent \u2062on politics by the unions came from union dues, while the rest came from state\u200c and federal PACs, which union \u200cmembers are encouraged to support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen employees learn that their dues are being used\u2063 to fund political projects, that\u2019s a value\u2062 in and of itself. There are some things they\u2064 can do as individuals to \u2063cut off the funding \u2062if they\u2064 desire,\u201d\u2064 Osborne said.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200dbiggest\u2062 beneficiary of union\u200b dollars was Shapiro, \u200bwho raked \u200cin about $4,540,000 million from the PACs \u2062during his campaign for\u200c office, the Commonwealth Foundation found. Osborne told The Daily Wire that this number was \u201cabsolutely shocking,\u201d pointing out that this\u200d amount was three times more than any other individual.<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro \u2062would later negotiate with members of both the local SEIU and AFSCME, which included an increase in pay and benefits for \u200dunion \u2062members.<\/p>\n<p>Other top recipients of union money at the state \u2062level included California Attorney\u200c General Rob Bonta\u200d ($1,297,200), Chicago Mayor\u2062 Brandon \u200cJohnson ($1,179,100), \u2064and failed Texas gubernatorial\u2064 and \u200c2020 presidential candidate Beto\u200c O\u2019Rourke ($990,000).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_666625\" style=\"width: 1005px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-666625\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy: The Commonwealth \u200bFoundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the federal level, union PACs \u200bgave significantly to Warnock ($60,500), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries ($50,000), and failed Senate candidates Mandela Barnes ($45,000) and Tim Ryan ($42,000).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn total, PACs tied to the four largest government unions contributed to \u2062282 candidates for the \u200bHouse of Representatives. Of those,\u200d 273 were Democrats, seven\u2063 were Republicans, one was a third-party candidate, and one was an independent,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n<p>The report made note of the close ties between the unions and President Joe Biden, who has billed himself as the most \u201cpro-union\u201d president ever. \u201cDuring the COVID-19\u200c pandemic,\u200d Biden\u2019s Centers \u200dfor Disease Control directly adopted language \u200csuggestions from \u2063the AFT into the organization\u2019s\u2063 school reopening \u2064guidelines,\u201d \u200bthe report notes.<\/p>\n<p>Text messages revealed \u200dearlier this year showed AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Becky Pringle texting with former \u2062CDC Director Rochelle Walensky about school reopening policies.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_666631\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-666631\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Courtesy: The Commonwealth Foundation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A variety of Democrat-leaning PACs and leftist organizations \u2062also pulled in a \u2064significant amount of money from union spending. \u2063For example, the unions gave a whopping $29,138,171\u2064 to the\u200d SEIU Political Education and Action Fund, a PAC that \u200bprimarily backs \u200dDemocrats \u200bfor federal office and \u2064$13 million\u200b to\u2062 the State Engagement Fund, \u200da Left-wing dark money group. The Senate \u200bMajority PAC\u200c and \u2064the House \u200bMajority PAC, which support Democratic majorities in Congress, both received millions of\u200d dollars from \u200cthe union PACs.<\/p>\n<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" aria-describedby=\"sk-tooltip-9096\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1700760801843000&#038;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG\">CLICK HERE TO\u2062 GET THE \u200bDAILYWIRE+ APP<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>The report\u2063 found that the union political spending favored Democrats in\u2063 every state but Alabama, Mississippi, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. The states with the \u200bmost union political spending were Illinois ($27.9 million), California ($24.9), Minnesota ($13.2 million), Pennsylvania ($12.1 million), and Washington ($7.5 million).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArmed with millions of members \u200cand \u2063numerous special \u2063privileges, the four largest unions have dedicated significant financial resources \u2063toward maintaining and expanding the legal \u200bstructures from\u200d which they derive their power,\u201d\u2062 the report says, pointing out that union-backed candidates performed\u200b well during the midterms, \u200band states like \u2063California continue \u2064to expand union privileges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGovernment unions use this power not only\u200c to advance leftist causes but\u2063 also to elect political leaders who \u200dwill protect \u200btheir interests and\u200d influence. The result, unfortunately, is that federal, state, and \u2064local governments\u200d are increasingly led by politicians who care more about union executives than union\u200c members or taxpayers,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> What are some examples \u2063of\u200c political action committees and individuals that received union PAC \u2063dollars?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  The \u2062power of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/navy-reading-checklist-includes-anti-racism-guide-for-sailors\/\" title=\"Navy Reading Checklist Includes Anti-Racism Guide for Sailors\">public sector unions<\/a> \u2063is \u2064a topic that has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/infographic-key-revelations-of-the-twitter-files\/\" title=\"INFOGRAPHIC: Key Revelations of the \"Twitter Files\"\">gained significant attention<\/a> in\u200c recent years. These unions, which represent\u2064 employees in government agencies and institutions, have been instrumental in shaping policies and influencing elections. However, there has\u200d been growing concern about \u2062the role of union dues\u2064 in funding partisan causes, particularly those aligned with the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>According \u2062to an analysis by the Commonwealth\u2062 Foundation, the four largest public sector unions\u200d spent nearly \u200c$700 million on supporting Democrats\u200d and leftist causes \u2064during the 2022 \u2064midterm elections. Approximately 60% of these funds came from union dues. The National Education Association (NEA),\u2064 American Federation of Teachers (AFT), American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the Service Employees\u200d International\u2064 Union (SEIU) outspent industries like defense, transportation, and construction.<\/p>\n<p>The funds\u200b were used \u2062to support Democrat political action committees (PACs)\u2062 and other\u2062 leftist causes. Notable recipients \u200dof union PAC dollars included For \u200dOur Future, \u200cthe Sixteen Thirty Fund, Georgia\u2062 Senator Raphael Warnock, and Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro. While it is no surprise that unions \u2062largely support Democrats and their causes, many union members may not be \u2063aware of how their dues\u2063 are being spent on\u200b political projects rather than representation.<\/p>\n<p>The unions\u2063 are not obligated to \u2063disclose how the dues are used for political purposes, nor do they require\u200c member approval. \u200cThe Commonwealth Foundation&#8217;s report reveals that about\u2064 57% of the total money spent on politics \u2063by \u2063the unions came from union dues, while the rest came from state and federal PACs. This lack of transparency has led to concerns among\u200d union members who may disagree with the political causes their dues\u200c are\u200c supporting.<\/p>\n<p>The report also highlights the extent of union funding for specific candidates. The largest beneficiary of union dollars was Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who received approximately $4.54 million from the PACs \u200cduring his campaign. This \u2063amount was three times more than any other individual. Interestingly, Shapiro later negotiated increased pay \u2062and benefits for \u200dunion members.<\/p>\n<p>Other notable recipients of union\u2063 money\u2064 at the state level included California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, and \u200bfailed Texas gubernatorial and 2020 presidential candidate Beto O&#8217;Rourke. At the federal level, union PACs made significant contributions to candidates\u2062 like\u200c Senator Raphael Warnock and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.<\/p>\n<p>The report draws attention to the close\u200c ties between the unions and President Joe Biden. During the \u2064COVID-19 pandemic, Biden&#8217;s Centers\u200b for\u2063 Disease Control adopted language suggestions from \u2062the AFT, showing the\u200d influence of the unions on government policies. Text messages \u200drevealed earlier this year\u2064 between union leaders and CDC officials\u200c further emphasized the collaboration between unions and government agencies.<\/p>\n<p>The power of public sector unions \u200bcannot be underestimated.\u2063 Their ability to mobilize\u200c resources and influence elections has made them significant players in the political landscape. However, the issue of transparency regarding the use of union \u2062dues for political purposes raises important questions about the accountability and representation of\u2064 union members.\u2062 As more union members become \u200baware of how their dues are \u2062being spent, they may seek ways to have more control over their funds, \u200dparticularly if they disagree\u2062 with the \u200dcauses being supported.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion, the\u200c power \u2064of public sector unions extends beyond their role as representative \u2062bodies\u200b for government employees. Their\u2063 ability to fundraise\u200c and support political causes has made them influential players \u2064in \u2064shaping policies and elections. However, the lack of transparency regarding the use of union dues\u2064 for \u200dpolitical \u2063purposes has raised concerns among union members. As the debate surrounding the power of public sector unions continues, it is essential to strike a balance between their political influence and the representation of their members&#8217; interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Commonwealth Foundation&#8217;s analysis reveals that the top four public sector unions spent around $700 million supporting Democrats and leftist causes in the previous year&#8217;s elections. Approximately 60% of these funds were sourced from union dues. In the 2022 midterm elections, the National Education union alone spent $708.8 million on political activities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":2123179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2123178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2123178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2123179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2123178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2123178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2123178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}