(via Dan Montgomery, IFT President)
This election was one of the most important in our lifetime because of the long-term consequences it will have on our members' livelihoods, the political discourse, and the overall health of our country and state. We are proud of the work our members did finding new and safe ways to engage voters during the pandemic.
Even though the Fair Tax constitutional amendment fell short of passing, our membership overwhelmingly voted yes for equity and fairness. The Fair Tax would have gone a long way to fix our broken tax system by asking the wealthy to pay their fair share. Since the start of the campaign, anti-union and billionaire opponents like Ken Griffin and the Illinois Policy Institute launched a misinformation campaign to scare voters, maintain our broken tax system, and protect millionaires and billionaires. We will continue to work with our allies in the General Assembly to look for avenues to generate much-needed revenue for the state and future budgets that don’t cut funding for public education.
We are proud of the work we did to help elect candidates who will prioritize public education from pre-kindergarten to college, fight against any effort to restrict workers’ collective bargaining rights, and protect retirement security. Congratulations to all the candidates who will continue advocating for working families and lead our state. We are very excited that U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, a friend of labor and education, won overwhelmingly and will continue to hold a leadership position in the U.S. Senate.
The race for president is still being determined and, given the unprecedented number of early and mail-in ballots that were cast, we must be patient. All votes must be counted! Former Vice President Joe Biden was the clear winner in Illinois and we are hopeful that he will eventually be declared winner and president-elect of our country.