Special Post-Election Message: NEA President Lily Eskelsen García

Received the "form e-mail" below from the American Federation of Teachers (because I signed their petition protesting TIME magazine's "Rotten Apples" cover):

From: Randi Weingarten
Date: 11/6/2014 3:09:40 PM
To: rjnewell@midwest.net
Subject: An important lesson

Ron,

First and foremost, thank you.

Whether you knocked on doors, made calls, talked to your friends and neighbors, or simply cast a ballot for working families, thank you.

Over the last few months, we’ve crisscrossed the country—from Miami to Anchorage—working side by side with you, our members and community allies, to elect leaders who share our values.

Tuesday night was tough. All day Wednesday, people asked us whether all the work was worth it. We’ve said the same thing to all of them.

Whether you win or lose, it’s never a mistake to go all-in for working families.

Tuesday, Randi spent the day in Pennsylvania, knocking on doors and making calls for Tom Wolf. And the evening began with the great news that we had won.

Sadly, it got a lot tougher after that. In Wisconsin, Mary Cathryn came back from a day of canvassing for Mary Burke only to watch as Scott Walker won re-election. After a day of door-knocking in Baltimore, Lorretta looked on in disbelief as Larry Hogan won in Maryland.

There’s no denying that this election will be a setback. Ironically, Wall Street—whose reckless actions helped caused the economic malaise that motivated voters to vote against Democrats—has already expressed its joy over the Republican takeover of the Senate.

Which gets to our point. There’s something important that people aren’t talking about as much: Where the election was clearly about everyday concerns—education, minimum wage, paid sick leave—working families prevailed.

From the governor’s race in Pennsylvania to minimum wage ballot measures in places like Nebraska and Arkansas, we see that communities are with us on the issues. We beat back restrictions on women’s healthcare, and defeated ballot measures that attacked due process, pensions and collective bargaining. When we campaign on real issues and offer big ideas, people agree with us. That’s an important lesson. But where the choices were less clear, voters took out their frustration with our seemingly broken system by voting against Democrats. It’s a reminder that we must make it clear what we stand for, and stand up proudly to tell people what we believe.

And here’s another thing: Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve seen the power that people feel from participating.

Yes, we lost many of the races we fought in. But we fought. We stood up—together—and said, “Our communities deserve better." And every time one of us stands up, it gives another person the courage to do the same.

We will not stop fighting now. In fact, we’ll redouble our efforts. From the statehouse to Capitol Hill, we need you with us now.

Power never yields without a fight, and to change the balance of power, we must stand together. That’s what unions are about—working together to make things better for working families. Today, we promise this union will stand strong with our members, our families and our communities.

From state capitols to Capitol Hill, we need your voice. We are calling on all governors—Democrats and Republicans—to fully fund public education, to lift up workers and protect our basic rights. We’re calling on Capitol Hill to break the endless logjam and move us forward.

To make that happen, we need you—your voice, your courage, your commitment—to help show our leaders that we demand better.

There’s a very simple promise enshrined in America. If you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to get ahead, and each generation will do better than the one before. We must continue our work to reclaim that promise.

In unity,