NC Labor Movement Delivers Historic Victories Across the State
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 5, 2026
Media Contact:
Jeremy Sprinkle, [email protected], 336-255-2711
NORTH CAROLINA’S LABOR MOVEMENT DELIVERS HISTORIC VICTORIES ACROSS THE STATE, WINS 79% OF ENDORSED RACES
Union members mobilized voters across North Carolina, helping elect pro-worker candidates while flexing the growing political muscle of the labor movement in the South.
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina's labor movement emerged as a major political force in Tuesday's midterm elections. Labor-endorsed candidates in the state won in over 79% of their races delivering historic victories up and down the ballot. Through an extensive worker-to-worker organizing program, union members mobilized and won. North Carolina workers are demonstrating the growing electoral power of labor unions in the South.
The victories included Roy Cooper's election to the U.S. Senate by the state's largest Senate victory margin since 1974, the defeat of longtime Republican incumbents Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson, and Tim Moore, and a dramatic shift in control of the North Carolina House of Representatives. Labor’s efforts also ensured that Anita Earls was re-elected to the N.C. Supreme Court and all three of its endorsed candidates for the N.C. Court of Appeals were victorious.
"Working people didn't just show up to vote in this election. We organized, we knocked doors, we talked to our neighbors, and we helped change the political landscape of North Carolina," said Braxton Winston, president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO. "We've demonstrated what our communities can accomplish when working people come together. The candidates we elected on Tuesday should understand that the labor movement is just getting started. We have an agenda to build a better future for workers across the state and we are turning the page to build the governing power we need to implement it."
The federation's statewide mobilization included more than 84,000 doors knocked, 124,000 phone calls, 81,000 text messages, and 27,000 voter contacts. In each of the three congressional districts where Foxx, Hudson, and Moore were defeated, the number of doors knocked by union members exceeded the Democratic candidate's margin of victory.
One of the election's most remarkable upsets came in North Carolina's 9th Congressional District, where retired Army Major Richard Ojeda defeated Republican Rep. Richard Hudson by 6,015 votes. Hudson, a senior member of House Republican leadership, had been widely expected to retain his seat. But the North Carolina AFL-CIO's member-to-member program knocked 10,689 doors in the district, surpassing Ojeda's margin of victory and demonstrating the scale of labor's ground operation in a race few expected Democrats to win.
Union members also helped reshape the balance of power in Raleigh. Democrats flipped control of the North Carolina House for the first time since 2010. Among the newly elected lawmakers are three union members, including Mark Carver of United Steelworkers Local 959, who flipped House District 109 in Gaston County. Carver will represent a community that includes the historic Loray Mill, where textile workers launched one of the South's most consequential labor struggles in 1929.
"These victories belong to the working people who gave their time, their energy, and their voices to this election," Winston said. "However, victory comes with responsibility. North Carolinians are looking for elected leaders who will govern for better wages, affordable health care, well-funded public schools, and the freedom to organize. Our movement intends to make sure those voices are heard long after Election Day."
The results come amid historic Democratic victories across the South and a national election in which union households favored Democratic candidates by 21 percentage points, according to AFL-CIO-reported exit polling.
For the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, the election represents a major political achievement. It is an opportunity to pass legislation that will improve economic conditions in a state that Oxfam has ranked the worst in the nation for working people for seven consecutive years. The federation's political organizing program has demonstrated its capacity to mobilize voters, compete in longtime Republican strongholds, and elect leaders who will champion the issues that matter most to working families.
NC AFL-CIO President Braxton Winston is available for interviews to discuss the 2026 election results, labor unions' role in key victories, and what comes next for working people in North Carolina. To schedule an interview, contact Jeremy Sprinkle at [email protected] or Hailey Allen at [email protected].
###
The North Carolina State AFL-CIO is the largest association of local unions and union councils in North Carolina, representing over a hundred thousand union members, fighting for good jobs, safe workplaces, workers’ rights, consumer protections, and quality public services on behalf of ALL working people.