The lesson of Conor Lamb's victory is clear: Unions still matter
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As a harbinger of this fall’s midterms, whether Conor Lamb won or lost by a few hundred votes in a Pennsylvania congressional district that Donald Trump carried by 20 points in 2016, in a race where Trump’s party outspent the Democrats by about 2-to-1, rThe lesson of Conor Lamb's victory is clear: Unions still matter
As a harbinger of this fall’s midterms, whether Conor Lamb won or lost by a few hundred votes in a Pennsylvania congressional district that Donald Trump carried by 20 points in 2016, in a race where Trump’s party outspent the Democrats by about 2-to-1, really didn’t matter that much. Either way, the Republicans are clearly in trouble. Having said that, beating Trump felt fucking fabulous. If we want to have that feeling again after the November midterms, if we want to retake the Senate and win a strong majority in the House of Representatives—one numerically strong enough to allow for elected Democrats to vote their district on certain issues when necessary to keep the seat in our hands in 2020—we need to learn the lessons Lamb’s victory taught us. One of the most important ones is that unions still matter. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a local media outlet, noted the importance of “union support” for Lamb in the headline of its article analyzing the contest. And the Democrat earned that support. As John Nichols over at The Nation noted, “on the essential issue of labor rights, Lamb ran a far more militant campaign than most prominent Democrats have in recent decades.” His opponent, Rick Saccone, was a bitter foe of unions who opposed giving more people the ability to access unemployment benefits, and who defended union-busting ‘right-to-work’ (for less) laws. In his victory speech, Lamb made very clear just how much unions mattered last Tuesday: Side by side with us at each step of the way were the men and women in organized labor. Organized labor built Western Pennsylvania. Let me tell you something: tonight, they have reasserted their right to have a major part in our future. These unions have fought for decades for wages, benefits, working conditions, basic dignity and social justice. Thank you! Thank you! You have brought me into your ranks to fight with you. Let me tell you something else: I am proud to be right there with you. And this is from the “Priorities” page on the candidate’s website: Union members in our district can count on me to be the most effective ally they have in fighting to protect their rights, support prevailing wages and Project Labor Agreements, and defeat the ideological extremists who want to put unions out of existence. Damn right. Read more