Midterm Home Stretch Opens With Labor Day Blitz

History is against the president's party: the party controlling Washington typically loses congressional seats in a midterm. Republicans currently hold the White House and both chambers, which is part of why the Dallas gathering — a convention in a non-presidential year — is unusual.

Down-ballot races are drawing the same union focus. In Wisconsin, Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden and Democrat Rebecca Cooke, running in one of the country's most competitive House districts, both joined a parade in the western part of the state. Democratic candidate for governor David Crowley, who wants to overturn the 2011 state law that all but eliminated collective bargaining for public workers, spoke at labor events in Milwaukee and Madison; his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, voted for that law as a state legislator and spent the day at a parade, a county fair and a Milwaukee-area street fair.

In Georgia, Bottoms urged union members to lean on their personal networks to offset the heavy personal spending of Republican nominee Rick Jackson, a healthcare CEO, on state airwaves. She noted Georgia's "right to work" law makes organizing harder and firing easier. Rick Jackson had no public events Monday, and the campaign of Ossoff's opponent, Republican Rep. Mike Collins, did not respond to an inquiry about his Labor Day plans. In Iowa, Democratic nominee for governor Rob Sand and running mate Dave Muhlbauer attended Labor Day events; they face Republicans Zach Lahn and Derek Wulf.