I’m a Republican Endorsed by 15 Labor Unions. This Is the Future of the GOP | Opinion

Democrats in Washington have committed themselves to a course of economic degrowth, open borders, and dependence on our nation’s adversaries that puts them at odds with the interests of skilled union labor. Working people across the country are taking note of these destructive priorities and responding at the ballot box accordingly.

In my campaign for the Republican nomination in West Virginia’s Second Congressional District, I received the support of 15 trade unions before claiming a 25-point victory in a five-way race. The concerns of these labor unions, in many ways, mirrored the concerns of rank-and-file Republican voters.

For the active membership of organizations such as the United Mineworkers and the Pipefitters, energy issues are paramount. Simply put, if there are no coal mines or pipelines, there’s no work. Their votes are not primarily determined by ideological commitments and political theory; regulations aimed at killing domestic energy production and natural resource development are tangible, kitchen-table issues for those workers and the families they support.

Democrats in Congress and in the Administration have entered into a partnership with special interests, like the Sierra Club, that abuse environmental regulations to stymie the development of energy infrastructure. One can find a clear example of how this subservience to the radical green lobby hurt union workers on the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Biden Administration, and the Obama Administration before it, fought the project with every regulatory tool at their disposal.

The result? According to the then-General President of the Teamsters, 8,000 union jobs evaporated overnight.

There is similar dynamic at work with the Biden Securities Exchange Commission’s climate disclosure rule aimed at bankrupting coal mines by starving those operations of needed capital. These ESG policies implemented by both government and financial institutions pose a serious threat to the tens of thousands of active UMWA members. As State Treasurer, I championed the cause of energy workers against financial institutions boycotting the fossil industries. In 2022, I divested state tax dollars from one of the most notorious perpetrators of environmental activism in the boardroom, BlackRock. With my allies in the West Virginia Legislature, I created the Restricted Financial Institution List to strip state banking contracts from institutions targeting our extractive industries for extinction.

What followed was a tremendous outpouring of support from organized labor. Hundreds of thank you notes from union families working in the energy industry poured into the office of the first Republican elected State Treasurer in 92 years.

The Republican message of American energy dominance connects deeply to families that depend on steady, blue-collar work for their livelihood.

But there is one issue which unites Republicans and labor more than any other: the engineered lawlessness at our southern border poses a serious threat to the livelihoods of the Affiliated Construction Trades members in my own state of West Virginia. Protecting American workers from unfair competition with imported illegal labor is a major concern for them. That’s why several labor unions supported Republican legislation to mandate E-Verify for employers in West Virginia. The bill was ultimately defeated through the lobbying of a more traditionally Republican-aligned set of interest groups, namely the Chamber of Commerce.

Consider that for a moment: Illegal immigration is a shared, urgent concern of Republicans and union members alike, while serious action to protect West Virginia workers from such unfair competition is blocked by a supposed bedrock of the Republican coalition.

Not only can common ground be found on illegal immigration, common cause with organized labor may be necessary for meaningful progress in securing our border and our homeland against illegal immigration.

For generations in our state’s Northern Panhandle, thousands of West Virginians have relied on the high wages and good benefits found at the site of Weirton Steel, now Cleveland Cliffs. Those jobs, though, have taken beating after beating by a Washington obsessed with free trade at all costs. Most recently, the members of United Steel Workers Local 2911 received devastating news that the Cleveland-Cliffs tinplate steel operations would be idling. The layoffs followed a ruling by the International Trade Commission that refused to apply anti-dumping tariffs against subsidized Chinese steel among other countries.

Our American government sided with Chinese companies over those 900 American families in Weirton.

President Trump and I both support a strong, America First trade policy to protect and cultivate American manufacturing. In this case, raising tariffs on Chinese tinplate steel would have had an immediate, direct impact of saving these union workers from the unemployment line.

The adoption of the 2024 Republican Platform calling for an end to outsourcing demonstrates an outlook on globalization that is shared by Republicans and organized labor. It’s a view certainly shared by this Republican State Treasurer and those 900 families in Weirton.

The key to garnering Republican support from labor unions is strategically straightforward: Prioritize the economic issues critical to restoring American greatness. Tactically speaking, though, there will be a process requiring work and attention from Republican candidates to realize and solidify these gains in union support. In Batya Ungar-Sargon’s recent book, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America’s Working Men and Women, the author relates an anecdote about a local union steward who is otherwise conservative yet casts Democrat ballots year after year. Why? Because this worker can’t get a meeting with a Republican.

Engaging at the local level is critical to both sharing our Party’s message of American greatness and to deepening our own understanding of the issues affecting union workers. Conversation with organized labor at the local level with the local unions will enrich our Party’s approach to other national concerns.

What common ground is there in the advancement of career and technical education over Left-wing universities? What fellowship could there be in enacting real infrastructure legislation to repair our nation’s roads and bridges? How would organized labor factor into rebuilding a defense industrial base capable of building strategic stockpiles of armaments and weapon systems critical to maintaining conventional deterrence?

Our shortcomings in this regard have become self-evident, as the war in Ukraine rolls into its third year. These are largely unanswered questions, but their resolutions—which will yield tremendous political fruit for candidates advancing the interests of working people—may be found on the bridges built between the Republican Party and labor unions.

Riley Moore is West Virginia’s 25th State Treasurer and is currently a candidate for Congress in West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. Born in Morgantown, he started his career as a welder at a mining operation.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.