NUHW helps flip the house and elect Gavin Newsom
Shortly following the November election, it looked we had a strong showing in key races. But as more votes have trickled in, the results are truly historic.
Although the tallies aren’t final, it looks as if we helped flip seven congressional which had been held by politicians who had voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, potentially ripping away health coverage from millions of Californians.
We helped elect house candidates:
Mike Levin — District 49 (San Diego and Orange Counties)
Gil Cisneros — District 39 (Orange, San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties)
Katie Porter — District 45 (Orange County)
Harley Rouda — District 48 (Orange County)
Katie Hill — District 25 (Northern Los Angeles County)
Jeff Denham — District 21 (Central Valley)
TJ Cox — District (Central Valley)
NUHW members did hundreds of shifts volunteering to get out the vote especially in Orange County where — in a stunning achievement — every congressional seat was won by pro-labor candidates.
“My co-workers and I knocked on doors and made calls because we were tired of being represented by people who only answered to the one percent,” Esmeralda Reynoso, a steward at West Anaheim Medical Center said. “This outcome shows that working people can stand up to corporate power and win.”
Statewide, NUHW-endorsed candidates won every contest, including:
Gavin Newsom — Governor
Eleni Kounalakis — Lieutenant Governor
Alex Padilla — Secretary of State
Xavier Becerra — Attorney General
Betty Yee — Controller
Fiona Ma — Treasurer
Ricardo Lara — Insurance Commissioner
Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
In San Francisco, we helped elect Gordon Mar, Matt Haney, Catherine Stefani, Rafael Mandelman and Shamann Walton to secure a pro-worker super-majority on the Board of Supervisors that will stand up for us against Sutter Health and other employers.
Along the Central Coast, two pro-worker candidates backed by NUHW — Regina Gage and Juan Cabrera — won seats on the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System’s Board of Directors. In the same region, Anna Caballero won her campaign to unseat State Senator Rob Poythress.
In Humboldt County, our members helped elect all three candidates we endorsed for the Eureka City Council: Kim Bergel, Natalie Arroyo and Leslie Castellano. In the North Bay, D’Lynda Fischer won a seat on the Petaluma City Council and Victoria Fleming won a seat on the Santa Rosa City Council.
Now comes the fun part. It’s time to strengthen our relationships with these elected officials — and many others — to win better contracts and pass new laws to improve health care and the lives of workers.