Randi Weingarten sees congressional victory through New York

American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten dialed into her New York roots while addressing the Empire State Democratic National Convention delegates in Chicago on Tuesday, praising the work of New York State United Teachers to help get Democrats elected to Congress and flip the House. 

Before stepping into her national role nearly two decades ago, Weingarten served as the president of the United Federation of Teachers, the New York City teachers’ union. She still lives in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, and grew up in Rockland County – and she had nothing but good things to say about the statewide teachers’ union this election cycle. “NYSUT is doing an incredible job in terms of understanding what it means to win the Congress,” Weingarten said. “We need to win the Congress through New York.”

NYSUT has been active so far in supporting key congressional Democrats around the state, recently rolling out its endorsements in a series of coordinated events as they had candidates sign the union’s “Common Ground Over Chaos” pledge. “I think most Americans understand that we gotta break this fever of hyper partisanship,” said congressional candidate John Avlon at NYSUT’s Long Island endorsement event last week. “We got to get to a place where we can reason together again to solve our common problems, because that's what Democracy depends on.”

In addition to Avlon, NYSUT also endorsed Rep. Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen on Long Island, Rep. Pat Ryan and Mondaire Jones in the Hudson Valley, and John Mannion in Central New York. Each candidate signed the pledge that included promises like “prioritizing results-oriented policies” over “divisive politics,” and seeking to “bridge divides and focus on our shared values.” The campaign seems to draw on the success of Suozzi’s special election in February, when he flipped the 3rd Congressional District back to blue. He ran heavily on his bipartisan bonafides and cross-aisle problem-solving capabilities and ended up with a larger margin of victory than many initially anticipated. The race was the first major test for New York Democrats after a disastrous 2022 cost the party control of the House.

In addition to the endorsements and the accompanying support that will come with it, NYSUT also announced at least $2 million in independent ad buys to support competitive Democrats, the largest investment the union has made in congressional races. NYSUT President Melinda Person told Politico New York, who first reported the effort, that the state union has historically deferred to the AFT when it came to federal races. “We’ve mostly focused on the state races and relied on our national unions to do federal races in the past,” Person told the outlet. “But this year, we think it’s important enough that we get involved and throw ourselves into these races.”

Back in Chicago, Weingarten acknowledged the difficulty of the races ahead. “This is not going to be an easy election,” she said. “Pat (Ryan’s) election, Mondaire (Jones’) election, John Mannion's election. These are not going to be easy.” But she said New York “ain’t going back,” and “to go forward means we have to get the vote out.” And Weingarten was confident that NYSUT is up for the job.