Our friends at AFSCME Council 31 has provided a list of political candidates they are endorsing for the election on November 8th. Most of these candidates are in alignment with candidates already endorsed by National NOW and IL NOW:

“This fall, Illinois voters will head to the polls to determine who will represent us in Congress and lead our state. And since early summer, AFSCME local union leaders have been meeting regionally to review records and conduct interviews of candidates in order to evaluate their commitment to advancing the interests of working families.

That process culminated Aug. 13 when hundreds of AFSCME local union leaders and retiree activists met in Springfield for the biennial conference of PEOPLE (Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality).

In addition to hearing remarks from Council 31 leaders and guests including Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch and Congressional nominee Nikki Budzinski and discussing the importance of the Workers’ Rights Amendment on the fall ballot, delegates made decisions about which candidates to recommend in the general election.

Here are the results of those decisions:

2021-22 Voting Record in parentheses

Incumbents in Bold

U.S. Senate

Tammy Duckworth (100%)

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

District: Endorsed candidate

2^nd CD: Robin Kelly (100%)

3^rd CD: Delia Ramirez

4^th CD: Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (100%)

5^th CD: Mike Quigley (100%)

6^th CD: Sean Casten (100%)

8^th CD: Raja Krishnamoorthi (100%)

9^th CD: Jan Schakowsky (100%)

10^th CD: Brad Schneider (100%)

11^th CD: Bill Foster (100%)

12^th CD: Homer “Chip” Markel

13^th CD: Nikki Budzinski

14^th CD: Lauren Underwood (100%)

17^th CD: Eric Sorensen

JUDICIARY

Office: Endorsed candidate

1^st Supreme Court District – Retain: Mary Jane Theis

2^nd Supreme Court District (Thomas): Elizabeth “Liz” Rochford

3^rd Supreme Court District (Kilbride): Mary K. O’Brien

2^nd Appellate Court District (Burke): Chris Kennedy

3^rd Appellate Court District (Wright): Sonni Choi Williams

5^th Appellate Court District – Retain: Judy Cates

Statewide Executive OFFICES

Office: Endorsed candidate

Governor: Two resolutions were approved:

Resolution #1: Given that Darren Bailey has introduced legislation that would overturn our state’s constitutional protection of public employee pensions, opening the door to reducing or even eliminating our pension benefits, and has also repeatedly voted against legislation that would protect labor rights, AFSCME urges members not to vote for Darren Bailey for governor of the state of Illinois.

Resolution #2: In session on this 13^th day of August 2022, the AFSCME Illinois PEOPLE Conference hereby delegates to the PEOPLE Executive Committee the authority to take any action that, upon further deliberation, is deemed in the best interest of AFSCME members with regard to the 2022 gubernatorial election.

Why we took this course.

Attorney General: Kwame Raoul

Secretary of State: Alexi Giannoulias

Comptroller: Susana Mendoza

Treasurer: Michael Frerichs

Illinois Senate And house of representatives

Click for complete list

COUNTY OFFICES

Regional PEOPLE committees are in the process of finalizing county-level recommendations.“