{"id":42691,"date":"2025-07-17T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42691"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:51:01","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:51:01","slug":"labor-backed-coalition-launches-working-class-effort-to-flip-35-house-seats-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/17\/labor-backed-coalition-launches-working-class-effort-to-flip-35-house-seats-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor-Backed Coalition Launches Working-Class Effort to Flip 35+ House Seats in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/seiu-justice-journey-march-and-rally-new-orleans.jpg?id=61236619&amp;width=1200&amp;height=400&amp;quality=90&amp;coordinates=0%2C51%2C0%2C291\" alt=\"SEIU Justice Journey March and Rally, New Orleans\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president April Verrett speaks at a rally against President Donald Trump&#8217;s immigration raids in Lafayette Square on July 1, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0(Photo: Sean Gardner\/Getty Images for SEIU)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;Working people deserve leaders who will fight for them, not grovel at the feet of their billionaire donors,&#8221; said Maurice Mitchell of the Working Families Party, one of the groups involved in the new coalition.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">STEPHEN PRAGER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jul 16, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/intent\/compose?text=Labor-Backed%20Coalition%20Launches%20Working-Class%20Effort%20to%20Flip%2035%2B%20House%20Seats%20in%202026%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fbattleground-alliance-labor-groups-2026\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/share.flipboard.com\/bookmarklet\/popout?v=2&amp;url=https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/battleground-alliance-labor-groups-2026\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/battleground-alliance-labor-groups-2026\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a href=\"javascript:;\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A coalition of dozens of labor groups and other progressive activist organizations has launched a new $50 million initiative to flip the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026 with a coalition of working-class voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The political action committee, Battleground Alliance PAC, announced Wednesday that it will seek to flip at least 35 Republican-held districts for Democrats by mobilizing voters angry about the Trump administration&#8217;s assault on the social safety net and authoritarian attacks on civil liberties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The groups will target their efforts toward mobilizing voters who have been hit the hardest by the Republican agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;These are parents who will lose healthcare for their kids, families struggling after [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] cuts, seniors not being able to afford their medication, people struggling with higher utility bills, and workers who&#8217;ve watched billionaires get tax breaks while their wages stay flat,&#8221; the group said Wednesday. &#8220;They&#8217;re not just participating, they&#8217;re at the center of leading this effort to take back control and make their voices heard at the ballot box next November.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The coalition is attempting to build upon the successes of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.battlegroundny.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Battleground New York<\/a>, which mobilized progressive voters in 2024 to flip back many seats lost to Republicans during the previous cycle. Amid the daily outrages of President Donald Trump&#8217;s second term, they believe that success can be replicated nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;People are angry for a reason,&#8221; said Stephanie Porta, campaign manager for the Battleground Alliance. &#8220;They&#8217;ve seen their rights stripped, their wages stagnate, their bills skyrocket, their healthcare attacked\u2014and they&#8217;re done waiting. This isn&#8217;t about the usual D.C. politics. This is about the majority of Americans saying: enough is enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the groups taking part in the alliance are the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Working Families Party, Planned Parenthood Votes, Indivisible, and MoveOn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The announcement of Battleground Alliance came on the same day that the Congressional Progressive Caucus&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/2026-us-house-elections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">outlined its major priorities<\/a>&nbsp;for 2026 in a briefing to reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Working people in America are getting screwed by corrupt politicians and big corporations that are driving costs up and keeping pay and benefits down,&#8221; said the caucus&#8217;s chair, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Casar and his colleagues introduced four &#8220;task forces&#8221; that &#8220;go directly at those big problems facing Americans: fighting corruption and corporate greed in order to lower costs and win better pay and benefits.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Happening Now: House Progressives Give Remarks On 2026 Priorities\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TTVUbAqSEkU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Battleground Alliance is taking a similar approach, focusing on the material effects of the Trump agenda on working people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;GOP members of Congress betrayed their constituents when they voted to kick 17 million Americans off their health care,&#8221; said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party. &#8220;Working people deserve leaders who will fight for them, not grovel at the feet of their billionaire donors. We&#8217;re ready to organize in districts all across the country to kick out members of Congress who lied to their constituents and voted for this disastrous budget.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group is planning to pour $1 million into the most competitive districts in the country, targeting Republicans who voted for Trump&#8217;s massive budget legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the Republican targets it has already singled out include Rep. David Valadao, whose&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/California%27s_22nd_congressional_district\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">district<\/a>&nbsp;in California&#8217;s San Joaquin Valley is majority Latino and has one of the highest Medicaid enrollment rates in the country; and Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, whose Allentown, Pennsylvania&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foodandwaterwatch.org\/2025\/05\/22\/rep-mackenzie-votes-to-strip-300-billion-from-snap-federal-hunger-prevention-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">district<\/a>&nbsp;now has 25,000 people at risk of losing food stamps as a result of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Working people are done watching politicians in Washington hand out favors to the wealthy while our communities struggle to afford care, housing, and food,&#8221; said April Verrett, president of SEIU. &#8220;Through 2026 and beyond, we will continue to organize in places that they&#8217;ve tried to ignore because that&#8217;s where real change begins.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">STEPHEN PRAGER<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/stephen-prager\">Full Bio &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president April Verrett speaks at a rally against President Donald Trump&#8217;s immigration raids in Lafayette Square on July 1, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. \u00a0(Photo: Sean Gardner\/Getty Images for SEIU) &#8220;Working people deserve leaders who will fight for them, not grovel at the feet of&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/17\/labor-backed-coalition-launches-working-class-effort-to-flip-35-house-seats-in-2026\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42693,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42691\/revisions\/42693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}