How the UAW abandoned auto-workers to back radicals

One of the most consequential political races now underway is the battle to replace retiring Michigan Democrat Gary Peters in the U.S. Senate. The outcome could bring the socialist surge fracturing the Democratic Party to a screeching halt, or it could give the movement wings. It could also determine who controls the Senate for the remainder of President Trump’s time in office.

A month ago, the UAW endorsed progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary for Michigan’s open Senate seat. It seems an odd anti-establishment move for a long-time Democrat ally and pal of former President Joe Biden — one that could backfire with the union’s rank and file.  

It could also endanger more pillars of the Democratic Party coalition. Polling from recent elections show Black and working-class voters not supportive of democratic socialism or hard-left candidates like El-Sayed. Democrats have already lost most men; if union leaders go all-out progressive, they could bleed working-class and Black voters as well.   

That would be a disaster for the party, which saw its share of the union vote increase to 57 percent in 2024, expanding on Biden’s 56 percent tally in 2020. The trend wasn’t enough to win the election, but it was one of the few bright spots for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz ticket.

Why would the UAW’s leadership throw their lot in with a candidate backed by the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), instead of the more moderate candidates in the race like establishment favorite Congresswoman Haley Stevens? Because college-educated liberals are driving the socialist bus and increasingly driving the UAW.

The UAW is no longer all about building cars. The union, desperate to build its shrinking ranks, has been adding members in all kinds of professions and trades, including signing up some........

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