The Union encourages its members to take to the streets whenever they are not tied up at their job posts.
Union secretary-treasurer, Ted Pappageorge, outlined a three-step process the union will follow: mobilize, register, and vote.
"By election day, we'll have 500 union members—men and women that are normally cleaning rooms in hotels, or cooking food, or serving drinks—out full-time, knocking on doors, registering folks to vote, taking folks to the polls," said Pappageorge. “Getting out [to] vote. There's no other way to win."
Las Vegas represents roughly 75 percent of Nevada’s total population (3.18 million in 2022). Vegas is liberal-leaning and holds lots of power in both local and federal elections because of its population density.
The Culinary Union is one of numerous reasons that Democrats have been so successful in the state, having won two-thirds of elections since 2000. The group is three times larger than it was in the late 1980s and is comprised of a diverse community. 60 percent of members identify as Latino, and 55 percent identify as female.
The union claimed it visited more than one million homes during the 2022 local election, which led to the reappointment of Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto by fewer than 8,000 votes.
Author Steven Greenhouse in his book Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor referred to the group as a “political juggernaut that has gone far in turning Nevada from red to blue.”
The union is not a strictly liberal organization and did not always support the Democratic party. However, its days of conservatism are over due to the group’s stance on President Biden.
"[Biden is] the best president for working-class people and families and unions in my lifetime,” said Pappageorge.
