Organized labor is shifting to the right in Ohio, where several unions have issued surprisingly early endorsements of Republicans in the state’s races for governor and U.S. Senate.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire closely aligned with President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, already has three labor groups backing him for governor in 2026, with the most recent nod coming this week from the Central Midwest Carpenters Union. And Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican appointed to fill Vice President JD Vance’s old Senate seat, has two supporting him in next year’s special election to fill the remainder of Vance’s term.
The endorsements on their own aren’t a total shock, coming from groups that occasionally back GOP candidates in a state where unions have been spreading their political donations more evenly between the two parties. In Ohio, voters from households with at least one union member favored Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris, 54%-45%, in last year’s general election, according to NBC News exit polling — part of a broader, long-term shift around the U.S.
But the timing of Ramaswamy and Husted’s labor endorsements, nine months before the May 2026 primaries, has raised eyebrows. The Democratic field for governor is unsettled, with former Rep. Tim Ryan, a labor-friendly candidate who lost the Senate race to Vance in 2022, expected to decide whether to run soon.
Meanwhile, Husted’s endorsement last month from the Northwest Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council came days after former Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who has made his support for labor central to his political identity, launched a campaign for Husted’s seat.
“I think that others have a scarcity mentality, where they want to talk about jobs in terms of haves and have–nots,” Husted, referring to Democrats, said in an interview with NBC News.
“I talk about it in terms of a growth mentality — that we don’t have to fight with each other,” Husted added. “We can fight for the growth of our economy, which means more jobs for the construction trades, for the people who build our state and our nation.”
Ohio is not far removed from an unsuccessful push, led by then-Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, in 2011 to weaken the collective bargaining power of public-employee unions.
A decade ago, these GOP endorsements from unions “would have been unfathomable,” said Jai Chabria, Ramaswamy’s chief strategist and a veteran of Kasich’s administration.
A Democratic operative working with multiple campaigns in Ohio downplayed the significance of the endorsements flowing to Ramaswamy and Husted, noting that they come from groups that have “never been as in love with the Democrats as the rest of labor has been.”
The operative also acknowledged that Democrats’ plight in Ohio — where Brown, in 2018, was the last Democrat to win a nonjudicial statewide race — has reset labor’s political calculus.
“Ramaswamy and others are saying to labor, ‘Hey we’re in charge, we’ve been in charge, we’re going to stay in charge,’” this person added. “I don’t think it’s a surprise that a handful of unions are coming out for Republicans. They’re in power and they’ve been in power. It is what it is.”
A ‘realignment of the parties’
Nationally, the Democratic Party’s hold on labor has been loosening for years. Trump has reoriented the GOP away from its longtime support for free trade and around “America first” populism that resonates with many rank-and-file union members. Union leadership is catching up.
Last year, the leader of the Teamsters union, once a powerful presence in Democratic politics, spoke at the Republican convention, and the union issued no endorsement for president.
“Historians will write about a realignment of the parties,” Ohio GOP chairman Alex Triantafilou said in an interview. “But there has been one, and we’re seeing our numbers grow in the labor movement, because we’re talking about things like putting American jobs first.”
Besides the endorsement from the Northwest Ohio building trades council, which represents 18 Toledo-area unions, Husted also has the backing of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 18. (Ramaswamy also boasts an endorsement from the Toledo group, as well as support from the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council.)
Husted argues that Brown has lost touch with the workers he centers in his campaigns.
“He’s been in Washington for 32 years,” said Husted, who served as Ohio’s lieutenant governor, secretary of state and state House speaker before his Senate appointment. “I’ve been in Ohio working with them, shoulder to shoulder, for two decades now, and solving problems.”
Michael Bertolone, the business manager for the operating engineers local, summed up his group’s endorsement of Husted in blunter terms: “We want results, not pandering.”
For his part, Brown has landed several early union endorsements, including from the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. And the same carpenters union that endorsed Ramaswamy announced its support for Brown that same day.
Brown’s team expressed confidence that he will have no shortage of labor support.
“Jon Husted has a history of siding with corporate interests raising prices for Ohio families,” said Justin Barasky, a Brown adviser. “He’s going to have to answer for his record in this race. Sherrod has always fought against a rigged system that leaves workers behind.”
A ‘different playground here’
In the race for governor, Dave Wondolowski, executive secretary of the Cleveland building trades group, said he speaks regularly with Ramaswamy, whom he described as “on point” with the union members’ core positions, including opposition to anti-union, right-to-work legislation.
Wondolowski has long been an influential figure on Cleveland’s political scene, which unlike Ohio’s Republican-controlled state government is dominated by Democrats. His group endorsed Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s re-election campaign in 2022, but well after the primaries. Wondolowski said he received “a number of angry phone calls” after the Ramaswamy endorsement. But he described the decision in pragmatic terms — as a way to buy in early on the front-runner.
“We really feel his odds of winning are good, so it’s good to build relationships,” Wondolowski said. “I thought Joe Biden was a great president for the building trades, probably the best in all our history for us. But this is Ohio, and this is a different playground here.”
Physician Amy Acton, a Democratic candidate for governor who has attracted substantial support from party insiders as Ryan weighs a bid, has yet to win any formal union endorsements, though she has received $30,000 in donations from an Ohio Civil Service Employees Association PAC.
In a statement, Acton campaign manager Philip Stein alluded to Ramaswamy’s tone toward teachers unions — he has called for merit-based teacher pay — and to his work with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, which has targeted federal unions.
“Amy understands how critical organized labor is to ensuring working families in Ohio can afford to live their lives with a little breathing room,” Stein said, “and while Vivek Ramswamy flies around Ohio in a private jet and regularly attacks labor with calls for the elimination of teachers’ unions and federal unions, Amy will always fight for labor and all Ohio workers.”
But Republicans and Democrats alike found the early labor endorsements in the governor’s race most notable because those groups decided not to wait for Ryan to decide on his plans.
Ryan, in an interview, acknowledged that the endorsements also surprised him. He said he has been in touch with union leaders and believes he would have robust labor support if he runs for governor.
“I think if I would get in the race, there may be some significant blowback in some of these unions, because I, for 20 years, have been in every foxhole that those unions have been in and been in there fighting with them,” Ryan said. “So I don’t know why you wouldn’t even want to hear if I get in the race or not, unless something else is going on that we don’t know about.”
In the Senate race between Husted and Brown, Wondolowski’s group has yet to endorse. Wondolowski said he has never had a close relationship with Brown, who lost a re-election bid to Republican Bernie Moreno last year. But Brown has been reaching out more lately.
“Sherrod called me twice last week, and we talked both times,” said Wondolowski, who then made a point of refusing to render any judgment — good or bad — of Brown.
“I’ll keep my personal opinions on Sherrod Brown to myself,” he said.
The frosty vibes foreshadow trouble for Brown, said Triantafilou, the state GOP chair.
“If I’m Sherrod Brown, and I see that part of my coalition go away, I’m not sure there are enough suburban, educated women to make up for that,” Triantafilou added. “I just don’t see it.”