How one huge labor union is reaching this election’s swing voters

Even with favorable political winds for Democrats in the midterms, the party struggles to engage low-propensity voters. To overcome this, UNITE HERE, the country's largest hospitality union with over 300,000 members, focuses its efforts on voters' personal financial situations before advocating for Democratic candidates. In Texas, a union canvasser might discuss the Hilton Americas-Houston hotel strike, then emphasize that Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico and gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa supported this worker's drive for higher wages.

According to UNITE HERE's President Gwen Mills, "That's more what we find effective, because there is an apathy about Democrats in general. We talk about the agency that workers and working-class people have to change their lives through their union, and then through voting." This approach reflects Democrats' need to rebuild their brand and highlights the importance of economic issues in the national mood.

UNITE HERE has been successful in Nevada, where it helped flip the governor's office and hold three crucial House districts for Democrats. Now, the union is targeting more than a million households across Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas with a message aimed at low-propensity voters - those who often feel the system is rigged against them and are skeptical of both parties.

Mills explains, "They're working-class voters. And I think they see, whether they voted for Trump or Biden, right, or for Democrats or Republicans, they're like: 'This system is failing us.'" The campaign targets these voters in unusual places like Florida's 27th District, where Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar won by 20 points in 2024.

The union runs a Spanish-language canvass in support of Democrat Eliott Rodriguez. While UNITE HERE is not explicitly partisan and could support pro-union Republicans in future elections, they are focused on this midterms and building infrastructure in Sun Belt states like Florida and Texas due to demographic shifts.