AFT’s Weingarten Delivers Major National Address Ahead of Midterms

WASHINGTON-Calling out the obscene explosion of billionaire wealth at the same time most American households live paycheck to paycheck, AFT President Randi Weingarten urged the union's 1.88 million members to get out the vote and hit the streets for the upcoming midterms, to reverse the growing power imbalance poisoning American democracy.

In a blockbuster keynote before 3,000 fired-up delegates at the national union's 89th biennial convention, Weingarten said "mind-blowing" wealth and income inequality was at the root of America's woes, but that the countervailing power of the labor movement could halt the aristocratic turn in the 111 days before Nov. 3.

"This election will decide whether we are a country governed by the people or ruled by the powerful. A country of opportunity or oligarchy. A country whose people live in freedom or in fear," Weingarten said.

The top 1 percent of Americans now have as much as the bottom 90 percent-a yawning gap that diminishes the lives of everyone. Skyrocketing housing, healthcare and gas prices, combined with ruinous tariffs and anemic wage growth, have only deepened the nation's cost-of-living crisis.

The new class of billionaires and trillionaires have the power to write policy, undo social progress, warp financial markets, monopolize the media, buy elections and undermine democracy, Weingarten noted. "But this is what they don't have-the power of the people to bargain together, to protest together, to vote together, to act together to bring about change-real, lasting, life-improving change."

Unions are the vehicle. "We use our power for good-against chaos, cruelty and corruption. We care, we fight and we show up-for a better life for all. Oh, and one more thing: We get shit done!"

Weingarten announced a comprehensive midterms political strategy that would mobilize the 1.3 million AFT members and their families who live in districts and states with competitive races in November. Alongside the AFL-CIO, the union has a goal of reaching 2 million new voters this cycle. A 50,000-strong "Democracy Defenders" election protection program will ensure that people can exercise their right to vote free from ballot box intimidation. She urged candidates to embrace the economic and social policies the union is fighting for: increasing the minimum wage to $25, a working families tax cut paid for by millionaires and more funding for public schools and colleges, while reversing cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Weingarten, first elected in 2008, noted that during her tenure the AFT-the fastest-growing union in the AFL-CIO-has become a "bigger, badder, big-hearted union." AFT membership now sits at a record 1,875,222 members, with thousands of workers across 3,786 affiliates flocking to join even in the face of cynical attacks from far-right groups that refuse to disclose their billionaire donors. Since its last convention in 2024, the union has organized 179 new units with nearly 60,000 members from Hawaii to Maine.

The AFT has won a slew of material victories over the last two years for its members and the American people. It secured $78 billion in student debt forgiveness through borrower advocacy and filed more than 25 lawsuits to stop the White House's war on civil rights, free speech and immigrants and its cuts to K-12 and higher education funding. The union has launched major national higher education and healthcare campaigns and fought for AI protections for kids and training for teachers. And it has distributed 11 million books to parents and kids as part of its wildly popular Reading Opens the World initiative.

Weingarten, who published the New York Times-bestseller Why Fascists Fear Teachers last year, catalogued the Trump administration's dire threats to democracy that are tearing at America's rights and freedoms. The president is weaponizing the justice system, sending masked agents into cities to brutalize immigrants and obstructing free and fair elections-all while abusing his office to enrich himself and his family.

She slammed Trump's farcical, failed attempt to turn America's 250th birthday into a political rally while continuing to deny responsibility for the Jan., 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

"Mr. President, you don't own July Fourth, you own Jan. 6," Weingarten said.

She concluded with a passionate call to arms: "Do we want a future where billionaires and a trillionaire continue to grow their wealth at the expense of working people, or one where working people earn a decent wage, support their family and take a vacation once in a while?

"Do we want a future in which classrooms lack resources and life-changing research is abandoned, or one in which we nurture the potential of every student and we continue to lead the world in bold discoveries?

"Do we want a future where big healthcare corporations put profits over people, or one in which every person-every person-has access to healthcare, and healthcare professionals have the resources, staffing and power to help their patients?

"Do we want a future ruled by tech bros and robots, or a future grounded in dignity and humanity?

"Do we want a future in which elections are rigged to maintain one-party control and government is for sale to the highest bidder, or one in which every person's vote matters and government serves the people?"

"That," Weingarten said, "is what's at stake in November 2026."

The full speech can be viewed here and downloaded here.

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.