Pennsylvania Unions are Spending Your Tax Dollars to Pick Your Politicians

Originally published in The Mercury.

What if I told you that your tax dollars fund political campaigns that you probably didn’t vote for? Unwittingly, taxpayers have been subsidizing the partisan politicking of a significantly strong lobbying force in Pennsylvania politics: unions.

New analysis shows that 2025—which was supposed to be a quiet off-year election year—proved to be a boon for union political spending in Pennsylvania. Political action committees (PACs) operated by trade unions and government unions combined to spend $22.4 million on monetary and in-kind political activity in 2025.

Obviously, Pennsylvania’s judicial-retention race was the hub for political activity in 2025. Three Democrat-backed Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices—Justices Kevin Dougherty, David Wecht, and Christine Donohue—faced potential removal, but a huge influx of out-of-state contributions helped the three justices retain their seats.

Read more at The Mercury.