The incoming Democratic majorities had barely been projected on Nov. 3 when the leaders of America’s biggest unions began telling them, in writing, what they expect in return.
“We lifted you up. Now it’s time for you to deliver for us,” SEIU President April Verrett said in a Nov. 4 statement. She listed lower costs, affordable care, protecting immigrant families and making it “easier for every worker to join a union.” Then she added, “we will hold you accountable for delivering.”
What the filings show
Federal Election Commission summaries run only through Oct. 14, 2026, so they are incomplete.
SEIU’s main political committee, SEIU COPE, raised $87.6 million in the 2025-2026 cycle, gave $11.2 million to other committees and still had $45.1 million in cash. In August, Verrett wrote that SEIU was “investing $100 million in the 2026 midterms and mobilizing one million SEIU members.”
The National Education Association’s super PAC, the NEA Advocacy Fund, raised $16.9 million and spent $14.3 million, including $6.4 million given to other committees. Its largest payments went to the Democratic Governors Association ($4 million), House Majority PAC ($2 million) and Senate Majority PAC ($1.5 million), according to itemized FEC data compiled by the site Where They Stand. The NEA’s separate member-funded PAC raised nearly $4 million more.
The American Federation of Teachers’ political committee raised $12.1 million and gave $6.6 million to other committees, including $2.25 million to House Majority PAC and $1.75 million to Senate Majority PAC, by the same FEC-based count.
That is only the federal side. A Defending Education report, described by Fox News on Nov. 12, found the NEA and its affiliates put nearly $7.8 million into ballot fights in three states this year, including campaigns against school choice and against a measure on biological sex in school sports.
The AFL-CIO called its effort its “largest-ever midterm program.” It said union volunteers reached 14.9 million voters since Labor Day and that it ran a seven-figure digital campaign in 39 House and Senate races.
The wish list
On Nov. 10, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler joined Labor Caucus leaders and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the incoming chair of the House labor committee, on the Capitol lawn to lay out an agenda, People’s World reported. At the top is an expanded PRO Act, which would outlaw captive-audience meetings and raise fines on employers. Shuler also called for a higher minimum wage, a return of the expired Obamacare subsidies and a reversal of last year’s SNAP and Medicaid cuts.
“Our job for the next two years is to make sure this Democratic majority does what they said they were going to do,” Shuler said.
AFT President Randi Weingarten said on election night that the next Congress must strengthen public education, raise wages and make health care affordable. She said union voters made up a record 15% of the electorate.
The bottom line
Unions have every right to organize and back candidates. What concerns me is who pays for the machine. The Center Square reported in August that the two national teachers unions and their state affiliates directed millions in membership dues to Democratic state lawmakers. OpenSecrets says teachers unions have given Democrats at least 94% of their candidate and party money since 1990.
A teacher who votes Republican is still paying dues to an organization whose politics run almost entirely one way.
Watch what the new majorities do with the PRO Act and with school choice. When a group puts “deliver for us” in a press release, voters are entitled to keep score on what gets delivered.