When we vote, we win!
July 21, 2026
This year our Joint Council continued to bring the political heat to local, state, and federal races. An overwhelming number of our endorsed candidates won in all facets of government, including a Teamsters 856 member who won his judge seat in San Mateo County. However, endorsements are about more than just helping candidates who share our values. They’re also an opportunity for us to talk to every candidate running for office about the issues facing workers. This year we made sure that anyone running for office made it clear whether they stood: with the workers or the AI tech billionaires.
Our messaging worked and this election was proof. “Butts in seats”—the presence of a human safety driver in autonomous vehicles—become a hot topic for every candidate for office, thanks to the power of our messaging campaign. Even candidates we didn’t endorse for California Governor declared their support for new laws requiring human safety drivers. Teamsters were able to push this issue into the mainstream just by working together statewide to consistently pressure every candidate on the issue. Our number one priority is to ensure that Teamster issues are being heard, and with systemic, collective power, we are succeeding!
This election also highlighted that the tech billionaires could not buy winning candidates no matter how much money they put into a campaign. The tech billionaires poured millions of dollars into San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who has been consistently anti-labor and pro-tech. They hoped to buy the Governor’s seat through him so that Big Tech could continue their unchecked reign in California when it comes to AI and AV regulation bills. But Mahan flopped big-time and, as later reporting confirmed, that’s thanks to the labor movement uniting against him.
As we look ahead to the November general election, we need to continue to push our issues with a united voice during our endorsement process. We also need to ensure we defeat and support some critical measures that will be on the ballot. First, the Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a measure that would limit local governments’ ability to raise taxes, which would negatively impact both our public and private sector members, many of whom depend on tax revenue to keep our cities, counties, and state thriving. That includes keeping public hospitals open and keeping our streets clean and safe. Even in the private sector, Teamsters depend on public sector funding for things such as sanitation needs and construction of public projects. We need the ability to work with local governments to raise revenue to support our members.
Another proposition to note is the Billionaire Tax, which would create a one-time 5% tax on the roughly 200 billionaires in California to help fund the hospitals and other healthcare providers in our state who are teetering on the brink because of recent federal funding cuts. This is also our opportunity to ensure that Big Tech billionaires who want to replace human workers with robots are forced to give back to the system to help everyday workers. November is our opportunity to guide our state back to the side of workers, and I know we can do it—so long as we do it together.
