However, the Harris-Walz campaign managed to outperform Biden-Harris among union members. Joe Biden won union members handily in 2020,
reversing a decline in union support for Democratic candidates that began in 2016, according to previous Center for American Progress Action Fund research. And, according to the VoteCast
survey conducted for The Associated Press (AP) and Fox News, Harris appeared to widen Biden’s margin, with union voters preferring Harris over Donald Trump by 16 percentage points in 2024.
While this improvement in performance among union members was not enough to win Harris the election, these results suggest that Democratic candidates can increase support among union members by appealing to their economic interests through pro-worker policies and appeal to the nonunion working class more broadly by both focusing on economic issues and educating voters about their policies,
even as Republicans make it harder for workers to organize.