United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain says Tuesday’s blue wave shouldn’t lull Democrats into thinking working-class voters are locked in for 2028.
Speaking to Fox News Digital at the Michigan Democratic Party’s election night watch party in Detroit, Fain said union households will vote for whoever actually backs their interests, not whichever party holds a label.
“It makes me confident that the working class will back whoever supports them, who they see getting behind their issues. I say this all the time, look, we’re not Republicans, we are not Democrats, we aren’t independents. We support people that back us,” Fain said.
He called the night’s results “a wake-up call to everyone” to get behind workers rather than corporate dealmaking.
“I just believe, you know, it’s a wake-up call to everyone that they better get behind workers and start supporting people because they’re tired of seeing, you know, $10 billion, $20 billion buyback deals for corporate leaders and for Wall Street while the people that create those profits can’t afford to live,” he continued.
A Reversal in the Rust Belt
The comments come after Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan, a sharp contrast to 2024, when President Donald Trump carried voters without college degrees by roughly 10 points there, according to exit polling.
That earlier shift was part of a broader realignment that saw working-class voters, especially white working-class voters, move toward the GOP. The Teamsters drew national attention in 2024 when they declined to endorse then-Vice President Kamala Harris amid signs that rank-and-file members leaned toward Trump.
Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin — all states that saw this kind of working-class drift toward Republicans in recent years — delivered significant Republican defeats on election night, including Democratic wins in Senate, gubernatorial and legislative races.
Fain’s Diagnosis
Fain credited the Democrats’ focus on kitchen-table concerns for Tuesday’s results, framing Michigan as a snapshot of national frustration.
“I think it’s just a testament to Michigan here as a microcosm of what’s going on in this country right now. Working-class people have been left behind… these are some of the best times in the history of our nation… corporations are doing well, the rich are taking all the profits… and people are struggling to be able to afford to pay the bills,” he told Fox News Digital. “People come in, outside groups come in, they try to buy seats in Congress, they try to buy our electorate, and I think working-class people woke up to that and they’re fed up with this.”
Fain pointed to healthcare, living wages and retirement security as the issues driving the outcome, and warned that staying power depends on follow-through.
“Whatever party gets behind those things and supports those initiatives to take care of people, they’ll be in power for a long time,” said Fain.
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