Working families have won back the U.S. House of Representatives, exceeding the 15-seat margin needed to return the House to Democratic leadership. Union households voted 74 percent to 26 percent for Democratic candidates—and union members made up one in four voters. In key battleground states, union members voted 76 percent to 24 percent for Democrats.

We did it. We’ve made history. Working families have won back the U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.

In Ohio, Sherrod Brown defeated three-term Sen. Mike DeWine and Ted Strickland defeated Ken Blackwell to become Ohio’s next governor. In Pennsylvania, Bob Casey ousted Bush’s right-hand man, three-term Sen. Rick Santorum. Aside from soundly defeating their Republican rubber-stamp opponents, Brown, Strickland and Casey have something else in common—they have built their entire political careers on supporting the issues that matter to working families. 

In House races across the country, we saw an amazing phenomenon. Races like Pennsylvania’s 4th District and Minnesota’s 1st District, where no pundit would have predicted a Democratic win just a few weeks ago, have been reclaimed for working families. But over the past few weeks, working families pulled out all the stops to ensure that Jason Altmire and Tim Walz defeated their rubber-stamp opponents. 

Tuesday’s resounding victories are a testament to the power of ordinary working Americans working together to change the course of our country. We stood together and rejected the Bush administration’s agenda. We said no special favors to the privileged while blocking the minimum wage. No to lousy trade deals that have exported good jobs. No to privatizing Social Security. No to spending hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives in Iraq while ignoring the war on the middle class at home. No to energy and health care policies that have fattened oil and pharmaceutical industry profits without helping working families.

It wasn’t an easy fight. But you have proven that special-interest dollars are no match for America’s working families who have had enough of the corruption, scandals and anti-worker agenda of the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress.

Today, there is much to celebrate. This victory means we can and will change the course of this country. But the fight is far from over. Now that we have elected a Congress that will fight for what matters to working families, we must hold their feet to the fire to make sure they live up to the promises they’ve made along the campaign trail.

Electing a new Congress simply isn’t enough to turn this country around for America’s workers.   Now we’re determined to work together to move an agenda, on Capitol Hill and in our states, to change America and renew economic opportunity for all.There are five things that the 100th Congress must accomplish in their first days in office:

• Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.
  
• Restore workers’ freedom to form unions: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act and reverse the National Labor Relations Board’s recent ruling that allows employers to deny workers’ union rights by classifying them as “supervisors.”
  
• Overturn the ban prohibiting Medicare from negotiating with drug companies for more affordable prescription drugs.
  
• Stop sending our best jobs overseas: Reward companies that create jobs at home instead of giving tax dollars to companies that export our jobs. 
  
• Reverse the cuts in student loans made by the Republican Congress.

These five goals are just the beginning of the agenda we will accomplish together. We have an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to make a difference not only for ourselves but for our children and grandchildren. 

Together, we can make affordable health care a reality for all. We can provide real retirement security for our workers and retirees. We can revitalize manufacturing and safeguard good jobs, give a world-class education to every child and create an immigration system that protects the rights of all workers.

We are ready to continue the fight—and we invite you to join us.