The Lies Some Liberals Tell About Unions

Every time I talk about unions these days, a certain group of commenters likes to come back with the “Dems do everything for unions and all unions do is support Republicans” line. We saw this plenty yesterday in comments to my union post. The problem with this it is factually incorrect. What four years of good Biden policies did was make union members almost the only demographic category that supported Kamala Harris at higher rates in 2024 than Joe Biden in 2020.

According to the 2024 VoteCast survey conducted for AP and Fox News—one of the most accurate voting polls currently available—57 percent of union members voted for Harris compared with 41 percent for Trump, a 16-point margin and an improvement over the 14-point margin Biden achieved among union members, according to 2020 VoteCast data. (see Figure 1) Additionally, the AP-Fox News survey estimates that, while only 9 percent of people who voted were union members in 2020, this increased to 11 percent in 2024, which may suggest union members turned out in greater numbers in 2024. These results are largely consistent with exit polls from the consortium, including NBC and CNN, showing that Harris still won union households in 2024, though by narrower margins compared with union voters alone. (The NBC-CNN exit poll reported data for voters from households with a union member, meaning its results for union households include many voters who are not themselves union members; AP-Fox News results for union households similarly show a narrower margin than for union members.)

Union members were one of the few demographic groups who not only favored Harris overall but did so by a wider margin than they supported Biden in 2020. By contrast, many other critical groups decreased their support for Harris over Trump compared with their support in 2020 for Biden, including, notably, the working class: Trump won the working class, defined as voters without a four-year college degree, of all races by 12 points in 2024, up from just 4 points in 2020.

The results from exit polls and voter surveys conducted on Election Day suggest that union voters may have responded more positively to the pro-worker Biden-Harris administration and Harris-Walz campaigns than working-class voters overall. Both as a candidate and as vice president, Harris made frequent appearances at union halls and alongside labor leaders, voicing support for workers and unions. Similarly, in 2020, President Biden campaigned on a promise to be the “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.” His 2020 election marked a reversal of the decline in union support for Democrats that began in 2016. Unions have long played a role in educating their members about these economic policies, increasing turnout and informing voter preferences for pro-worker candidates. In this campaign, many of the nation’s largest unions ran education campaigns that ultimately resulted in larger support for Democratic candidates: Among United Auto Workers members in swing states, for example, internal polls found members preferred Harris over Trump by a 22-point margin.

Look, there’s arguments to be made around why unions don’t support Democrats by even more. We can talk about that. But lies about unions not supporting Democrats? Why should we accept that around here?

And again, there’s plenty of critiques one can make about unions. But the critiques that happen in comments here are disconnected from what union members are actually doing. Everyone who says unions don’t support Democrats is repeating right-wing lies. Don’t do that.