AFSCME members take a stand at the Defend the Vote March on Washington
Sixty three years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, AFSCME members rallied at the same spot at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday with new urgency to protect voting rights, public services, working families, and democracy.
AFSCME President Patrick Moran, addressing a crowd of thousands, praised the nation’s public service workers “whose courage keeps our communities safe, whose dedication keeps our economy running and whose solidarity keeps Dr. King’s dream alive.”
“I feel that history today,” Moran said. “Maybe in some ways it’s repeating. An all-out war on voting rights, a living you can’t live on, the haves scapegoating the have nots.”
The 2026 Defend the Vote March on Washington was organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, the son of the slain civil rights leader. There was a strong union presence, just like in 1963, to amplify the call for economic justice.
“We’re here today, thousands strong and fighting back, against greedy corporations rigging the game, against anti-worker politicians trying to cheat their way to victory, against a system that lets children go hungry while their parents work double shifts,” Moran said.
Moran and AFSCME President Emeritus Lee Saunders said the midterm elections in November are key to reversing policies that have led to skyrocketing costs, harmful cuts to healthcare and shocking wage inequality.
“We’ll march against the authoritarians. We’ll light a fire under elected representatives. We’ll talk to our neighbors about who will lower grocery prices, who’s going to demand our freedom, who is going to protect our voice and our vote,” Moran said. “We’ve got the power and we’re going to use it.”
Said Saunders: “We’ve got to keep raising our voices and we’ve got to keep raising hell. Keep educating, organizing, mobilizing. Keep marching for racial justice, economic justice and social justice. Keep marching for civil rights, labor rights, human rights and voting rights. If we keep marching, we will win.”
