Will labor unions propel Josh Shapiro to reelection victory?

Labor leaders remain optimistic that Gov. Josh Shapiro will be able to once again win Pennsylvania’s union voters at a time when Democrats have struggled to garner their support.

Support from union members and working Pennsylvanians across the Commonwealth will be a key component of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s reelection campaign, according to some of the state’s top labor leaders.

Shapiro is launching his reelection campaign with events in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on Thursday, and he is expected to run against two-term Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who was endorsed by the Republican party last fall.

“[Shapiro] understands that protecting workers, putting workers to work, seeing to it that highway dollars, training dollars, education funding comes out here. [Union members] understand that doesn’t have a D, an I or, an R next to it,” Darrin Kelly, outgoing President of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, said in an interview. 

“He understands that it’s about making sure that Pennsylvania works, and that will never have a political tag to it, and that’s what people see.”

Democrats on the national level have struggled in recent elections to capture the percentage of union voters they once carried throughout Pennsylvania in previous decades. 

In 2000, union members accounted for 30% of Pennsylvania’s electorate, with 65% of them supporting former Democratic Vice President Al Gore, according to Blue Compass Strategies. 

Over the past two elections, the share of union voters dwindled to 18% of Pennsylvania’s electorate, with members splitting their votes between President Donald Trump and his previous two opponents. However, Shapiro was able to win union voters against Republican State Sen. Doug Mastriano in 2022 by a 60% to 38% margin. 

Philadelphia AFL-CIO President Daniel Bauder credits the governor’s accessibility and respectfulness to those he may not agree with for his popularity among members—and voters—who may have supported Trump in previous elections. 

“He’s running for the fourth time statewide now for reelection, but he definitely cares as deeply about people in Pennsylvania in the northwest corner as he does about people in the southeast corner,” Bauder said in an interview.  

“That sort of thing transcends the partisan stuff, and I think that’s something that union members really appreciate, that he’s got a consistent message across the state and that he clearly cares about them.”

As Attorney General, Shapiro addressed worker misclassification and wage theft across the commonwealth. In August 2021, he filed the largest prevailing wage theft lawsuit in the country’s history against a contractor that stole over $20 million in employee benefits.  

Some of Shapiro’s first-term accomplishments as governor include assisting in rebuilding Interstate 95 after a portion of the highway collapsed in Philadelphia, setting aside $400 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for job training programs, using state funds to keep public transportation operating in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and establishing the Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit. 

“As a labor leader, especially in what are very uncertain times at the national level with the chaos that we’re dealing with in Washington, having somebody with a very steady hand at the pillar of the commonwealth is fantastic and reassuring,” Bauder said. 

“Despite everything that’s going on, there’s still business to attend to, and he’s gotta focus on it.”