Major Trade Union Exposed For Bias Against Republicans

Despite Republican inroads with working-class voters, major union leaders across the country continue their top-dollar spending almost exclusively backing Democrats in ways that are out of step with many of their more MAGA-minded members. 

A new report from the American Accountability Foundation obtained by The Daily Wire found that the majority of political committee spending from 2017 to 2024 by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers benefited Democrats. The watchdog organization found that the nation’s largest electrical worker union uses its funds for partisan spending, six-figure salaries, and golf outings. 

“While the broad support for the Trump-Vance agenda by industrial union members has been widely reported on, news of this nearly decade old re-alignment has apparently yet to reach the leadership of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) union whose dues-paying members repeatedly cast ballots for President Trump,” the report said. 

The report comes as some elected Republicans have adopted more pro-union rhetoric and positions. One pro-union bill set to soon get a vote in the House would allow either side in a labor dispute to bring in federal negotiators after 90 days, which is expected to be more advantageous to unions. 

The watchdog said that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents some 887,000 electricians, has “a love of partisan political activism and wasteful spending that is disconnected from the views and lifestyles of most of its rank and file members.”

Union President Kenneth Cooper has called Trump one of the “worst” presidents in American history and accused Trump of “killing America” over his claims of election fraud during the 2020 election. 

Examining the spending reports required for labor unions, the American Accountability Foundation found that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers spent $222,000 on political spending between 2017 and 2024, giving to Democratic Party groups while none went to Republican groups during the same time frame. 

Spending on party committees follows a similar pattern. The report found that about 98% of the $11,188,454 given to party committees went to Democrat organizations. When looking at candidate contributions, roughly 87% went to Democratic candidates. 

“When the dollars are aggregated, the imbalance is not marginal,” the report found. “It is structural.”

On an individual level, high-level officials with the union also contribute their funds to Democrat candidates. Ricky Oakland, the chief of staff at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers national headquarters, gave $155 to Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue earmarked for the Kamala Harris campaign in the closing months of the 2024 election. 

The spending disparity should come as no surprise when looking at the union’s endorsement track record. In 2024, IBEW backed then-Vice President Kamala Harris claiming that she has “listened to us, and we stand confident that she will continue this administration’s extraordinary pro-worker record.”

Throughout the campaign, the union mobilized for Harris and issued several calls to action leading up to and on Election Day for its members to vote for the Democratic ticket. Before the election, IBEW Secretary-Treasurer Paul Noble joined the liberal panic about “Project 2025” and claimed that electing Trump would be a “direct threat” to “progress” made by the union. 

After the election, the union has publicly attacked Trump’s economic policies on energy, including the administration’s pivot from so-called green energy sources.

At the same time, the union has continued to support Democrats. It announced that it was endorsing Democrat Sherrod Brown’s campaign against incumbent Republican Senator Jon Husted of Ohio. The IBEW described Brown as “one of the closest friends Labor and the working families of Ohio have ever had.”

Charlyce Bozzello, communications director at the Center for Union Facts, said that a massive divide existed between union members and their leaders.

“The divide between the interests of rank-and-file workers and the agenda of union bosses has never been more apparent,” she told The Daily Wire. “Members deserve to know when their dues are funding bloated executive salaries and partisan political advocacy rather than advancing priorities that actually matter to workers.”

The American Accountability Foundation flagged other expenses it found through a review of spending records. 

“While IBEW funds should be invested in improving their members’ lives and careers, they are instead wasted on unnecessary items and events,” the report found. “IBEW’s use of funds includes extravagant spending on swag, events, and a shocking amount [of] golf.”

A review of union spending records filed with the Department of Labor found over $1.5 million spent on golf-related expenses between 2017 and 2024 by the union and its offshoots. 

At the same time that the union spends big money on golf and other entertainment expenses, a major salary discrepancy exists between the average electrician represented by the union and those at the top of the union. 

While Cooper earned a gross salary $1,135,609 in 2025, the average salary of a union electrician is $83,000. Union leadership salaries across the board come in higher as well — a review by the American Accountability Foundation found that 30% of the union’s national headquarters staff make more than $200,000, and 78% make over $100,000. 

Previous reports from the American Accountability Foundation exposed Left-wing bias at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers.