IBEW canvassers and phone bankers are busy every autumn in New Jersey and Virginia, where legislators and statewide leaders are on the ballot in the odd-numbered years between federal elections. Tireless get-out-the-vote efforts yielded historic outcomes Nov. 4, helping elect worker-friendly governors and substantial pro-worker majorities in the New Jersey Assembly and the Virginia House of Delegates. Those victories magnified labor’s success nationwide, as union-endorsed candidates overwhelmingly won city, county and other local races. Bottom photo: Richmond, Va., Local 666 and fellow union members before a September canvass. Top photo: Volunteers outside Newark, N.J., Local 1158, which hosted labor walks every weekend. Above photo: At the hall’s Oct. 11 launch, now-Gov. Mikie Sherrill prepares to hug Tom Kelly, East Windsor Local 827 business agent and president of the Passaic County Central Labor Council. “Union rights are on the ballot,” Sherrill told the crowd. “The fight for PLAs is on the ballot. The fight for collective bargaining is on the ballot. The fight for your wages is on the ballot. The fight for your families is on the ballot in New Jersey.”