A Who’s Who of national labor leaders held a rally in Columbus this week to show their support for Sen. Sherrod Brown and his reelection to the United States Senate. The speakers included the presidents of AFSCME, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the National Education Association (NEA).

“All of us understand the importance of this election, all of us understand what we must do, and what we must do is organize and mobilize and educate our members and communities across this great state,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. “We have to do everything we can to make sure that Sherrod Brown returns to Washington D.C.”

The heated contest between Sherrod Brown and Bernie Moreno has turned into the most expensive Senate race in our nation’s history with more than $400 million being spent so far. Sen. Brown says Wall Street billionaires and special interests are trying to defeat him because he’s spent his career standing up for working people.

“When you stand up to those interest groups they come after you,” Sen. Brown said. “I wear that as a badge of honor because I’d rather have all of you than I would them.” Brown also spoke about the work he did to restore pensions to 100,000 union retirees in Ohio and his ongoing efforts to repeal WEP and GPO to restore Social Security benefits to OCSEA retirees and other public employees.