Why Lamb Won: He Stood Up for Workers and Union Rights

Western Pennsylvania voters showed what happens when a pro-worker, pro-union candidate runs in 2018. They made history this week by sending Democrat Conor Lamb to represent them in the U.S. House of Representatives in a district that voted for Donald Trump by 20 points and where Democrats didn’t even bother to run for the House in the last two elections.

Why was this election so different from ones in the past? While some pundits have focused on affluent suburban voters, it was working people who made the difference, including the almost 7,000 SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania, 32BJ and Local 668 members who live in the district who turned out and made their voices heard. Union members represent one out of four voters in the district and they didn’t just turn out on Election Day — they got the word out with their co-workers, their families and their communities.

Union members and other working people turned out because Lamb made the need for more good, union jobs a campaign issue. While Lamb spoke out against the Janus v. AFSMCE case that’s before the Supreme Court, which aims to divide union workers and limit their power, his opponent was a vocal supporter of “right to work for less” policies that drive down wages.

What’s more, Lamb campaigned on behalf of hundreds of thousands of not-yet union workers in southwestern Pennsylvania who are struggling to make ends meet — many of them toiling for poverty-level wages in the region’s growing service and care economy — vowing “to fight to make it easier to join unions.”

In their effort to spin their defeat, the President and Congressional leaders have been advancing the talking point that Lamb ran on their agenda. Nothing could be further than the truth. Lamb refused to take corporate PAC money, marched with workers against the Janus case and the “right to work for less” bills that are being bankrolled by greedy CEOs, spoke out against the proposed Federal budget that would gut Medicare and social services, opposed efforts to dismantle Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, and denounced Speaker Ryan’s prized tax cut bill as a give away to the rich. Lamb’s victory prompted Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) to tell The Hill: “We talk too much about corporations…We should be down there and a lot closer to organized labor.”

SEIU PA members endorsed Lamb in January, and hundreds of them knocked on tens of thousands of doors, made thousands of phone calls, and used texting and social media to connect with voters digitally. Their goal was to engage people who don’t normally vote and get them to the polls. And did they ever. Almost ten thousand more votes were cast in Tuesday’s special election than in the last midterm election — the exact opposite of what usually happens.

SEIU members have been talking with voters all year about the importance of healthcare and Medicaid. Over half of the voters in Tuesday’s election ranked healthcare as a top issue, and Conor Lamb won over 60 percent of their votes.

Working people turned out to vote for a candidate who stood squarely with workers and union rights, and Lamb knows that working people and union members made the difference in his victory. As he said early Wednesday morning, “Side by side with us at each step of the way were the men and women of organized labor…These unions have fought for decades for wages, benefits, working conditions, basic dignity and social justice. You have brought me into your ranks to fight with you…and let me tell you something else, I am proud to be right there with you.”