The United Auto Workers union has given nearly $100 million in political spending since 2017, with a significant amount going to leftist groups and causes, according to an exclusive report from the American Accountability Foundation. The findings should be a wake-up call for Republicans who have sided with the union in the past.
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The report illustrates UAW’s left-leaning political spending, its endorsement of “radical Democratic Socialist candidates,” its leadership’s far-left agenda, and its continuous smearing of MAGA Republicans and the Trump Administration.
“UAW has betrayed its members, positioned itself as the primary union antagonist to the Trump administration, wasted hundreds of millions of dollars, lined their own pockets, all while funding Democratic institutions, candidates, and organizations,” claims AAF.
Beyond the Democrat-biased political donations, UAW “goes out of its way to endorse radical Democratic Socialist candidates which stand against everything the Trump administration is trying to do,” AAF claims. “These candidates oppose commonsense immigration enforcement, want to ‘transition’ minors, and endorse a whole host of other leftist positions. UAW is happy to throw their lot in with them, alongside mainstream Democrats who endorse similar positions.”
Among the candidates endorsed by the union are New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York State Rep. and self-described “proud democratic socialist” Claire Valdez, and many other members of the Democratic Socialists of America, according to the report. UAW officially endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, and the union has never endorsed a Republican president or presidential nominee in its ninety-one year history.
UAW even endorsed Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who fantasized about assassinating a Republican colleague and wished death upon his children, as reported by The Federalist in 2025.
The report also claims that Shawn Fain, president of United Auto Workers, is an “outspoken critic of capitalism,” who champions the “eat the rich” slogan and tours with leftists like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., while claiming that billionaires “don’t have the right to exist.”
Before Fain took over in 2023, UAW leadership was not much better. According to The New York Times, “one executive spent $2 million in embezzled funds on gambling, cocaine and fancy cars,” and another scandal involved leadership spending $1 million of union funds on luxury “retreats.” The federal government won seventeen convictions in a 2020-2021 corruption probe, including one against former UAW President Gary Jones.
Despite the reported corruption and left-wing activism, AAF claims that UAW still has many Republican members who have been “betrayed” by the leadership using their membership dues to support causes they oppose.
“Despite many of their members being MAGA supporters, UAW has frequently opined on issues painting themselves as anti-capitalist, pro-DEI, supporters of mass immigration and as ideologically aligned with the Pro-Palestine movement,” AAF claims.
UAW did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment about their political spending and endorsements.
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In recent years, while UAW was apparently propping up leftist candidates and causes, Republicans like JD Vance and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have backed UAW’s members and, in Hawley’s case, collaborating with its leadership.
Though Vance has criticized Fain’s opposition to the Trump Administration, he has supported UAW workers’ “totally reasonable” efforts to force their employers to drastically increase wages, even visiting picket lines at a 2023 UAW strike in Toledo and promising he would be their advocate in Washington.
“I want to show some support for the UAW workers out here on strike,” Vance told the striking workers. “Their message is pretty simple, and I hear it loud and clear, which is, ‘look, 10 years ago the auto industry was in a state of crisis. We took it on the chin. We accepted lower wages so the industry could prosper. Now that the industry is prospering, it’s fair for us to share in some of the gain.’ I think it’s totally reasonable.”
When Vance joined the Republican ticket in 2024, UAW attacked him as a “menace to the working class” and condemned his partnership with “job-killer-in-chief” Donald Trump as a threat to American jobs.
In 2025, Vance traveled to Bay City, Michigan, where he spoke about restoring American manufacturing and the Trump Administration’s plan to invest in “American jobs and American workers and American businesses.” He was greeted by hundreds of people who had gathered to protest at the local UAW with signs reading “Fascists not welcome in Michigan,” “Vance your[sic] not welcome here,” and “Vance: Domestic Enemy #2.”
Hawley offered his support to UAW workers in strikes in 2022 and 2023. In 2025, Hawley reportedly met with Shawn Fain to discuss “working together on pro-labor priorities,” and Fain “seemed at pains to dispel” the suggestion that UAW directly supports Democrats.
Hawley and Vance backed one UAW strike against General Motors in which the union sought a forty percent pay raise and a thirty-two-hour work week in which workers would still be paid for forty hours, which is a proposal shared by the Democratic Socialists of America platform.
Vance and Hawley did not respond to The Federalist’s request for comment about where they each stand on the UAW in light of AAF’s finding that the union spent millions of dollars backing Democrats.
Republicans like Vance and Hawley oppose big manufacturers offshoring American jobs, and they oppose “green” policies by the federal government that they claim make the lives of workers more difficult. They may not promote UAW’s leftist advocacy, but, as the AAF report makes clear, Republicans run the risk of betraying their own constituents when they flirt with labor unions that not only double as Democrat laundering organizations but also seek to wage an “all-out war” against conservative values.