Top News Stories
Election of Obama-Biden a victory for schools, teachers, working families
Nov 6, 2008 9:45 AM
The fifth floor of UFT headquarters became Obama campaign headquarters in New York City leading up to the election.
[For more photos, go to the “Election of Obama-Biden a victory for schools, teachers, working families” photo gallery]
In his Nov. 4 Grant Park victory address, on Chicago’s lakefront to more than 1 million cheering supporters, President-elect Barack Obama acknowledged “who this victory truly belongs to; it belongs to you. It was built by working men and women.”
The president-elect was only repeating what he told supporters via e-mail earlier that evening, “I want to be very clear about one thing, all of this happened because of you.”
Nina Tribble of JHS 190 in Queens and NYSUT legislative staffer John Green plot strategy for campaigning in the Philadelphia suburbs on Nov. 1.
Key to the Obama election victory was the work of the AFT, the UFT and other labor unions, which was part of the mammoth volunteer effort that undergirded the Obama campaign. Reflecting the unprecedented level of civic engagement, 66 percent of eligible voters — the largest share since 1908 — cast ballots as an estimated 136 million Americans went to the polls.
“So much about this campaign has been historic and electrifying,” said AFT/UFT President Randi Weingarten. “The incredible voter interest Barack Obama generated, especially among young, independent and first-time voters; the sea change in voting patterns across America; and the election of America’s first African-American president are all extraordinary milestones for our country.”
On the campaign trail for Obama-Biden in her role as AFT president, Randi Weingarten made a number of stops at schools in battleground states.
Obama is the first candidate since Ronald Reagan to win an absolute majority of votes cast, garnering 52 percent to GOP rival Senator John McCain’s 46 percent.
In New York, preliminary balloting, which does not yet include absentee, affidavit and military ballots, showed Obama beating McCain by 62 percent to 37 percent, a sweep that outstripped even his big percentage win in his home state of Illinois.
City Councilman Michael McMahon (right), the UFT-endorsed candidate for Congress in the Staten Island/Brooklyn 13th congressional district, greets a Staten Islander as he campaigns with UFT Director of Legislation/Political Action Marvin Reiskin at South Ferry on Election Day. McMahon romped to victory.
Obama also trounced McCain in New York City by nearly 4-to-1, besting his rival in every borough except Staten Island.
Obama’s win coincided with Democrats gaining at least three more seats in the state Senate, giving Democrats control of both houses of the Legislature as well as the governor’s mansion.
The AFT and its 1.4 million members mobilized nationally for Obama, deploying some 600 full-time campaign coordinators and 5,000 volunteers to assist affiliates and the AFL-CIO in member education and get-out-the-vote efforts that included hundreds of labor walks and phone banks.
Bronx paraprofessionals and secretaries diligently write member-to-member postcards on Oct. 21 at the Bronx borough office, getting the message to brother and sister AFTers in toss-up states that their livelihoods, their professional standing and the quality of education their schoolchildren receive greatly depend on the outcome of the Nov. 4 election.
