Carter named WSLC Political & Strategic Campaign Director

SEATTLE (Aug. 22, 2019) — The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO has announced that Cherika Carter has been named the council’s Political and Strategic Campaign Director, filling the position vacated when April Sims was elected the council’s Secretary Treasurer last year. Carter previously served as the WSLC’s Field Mobilization Director.

“We are very excited to have Cherika take this critically important position as we gear up for the 2020 elections,” said WSLC President Larry Brown. “She has been very effective in her role as Field Mobilization Director and has demonstrated her commitment to the mission and values of the Labor Council. We are confident that she will continue to serve our affiliated unions well in this new role.”

As Field Mobilization Director, Carter played a key role in the mobilization, development, and execution of the WSLC’s 2018 Labor Neighbor grassroots political efforts and in coordinating WSLC affiliates’ response to last year’s Janus Supreme Court decision attacking unions. She has advanced the WSLC’s Race and Labor work and led the WSLC’s Union Summer internship program to help educate and train the next generation of union activists and leaders. She has and will continue in her new role to work with affiliates to recruit and train union members to run for public office thorough, Path to Power, our candidate training program.

“I am super excited to move into the role of the Political and Strategic Campaign Director at the WSLC,” Carter said. “This is an opportunity to build on the work I’ve done at the WSLC over the last 16 months, and guide the WSLC’s Political Department as we strategically look towards this November’s ballot and the opportunities presented in 2020 and beyond to win victories for working families. The WSLC is committed to growing union strength and I am humbled to lead our political efforts as we build power for working people, across all colors, backgrounds, and borders, intentionally running a program that is inclusive and strengthens our trade union movement for all people. Our strength lies in our ability to work together and our relationships that allow us to operate as one voice with the greater community, and I’m invested in our charge to deepen our ties with our community partners as we collaborate to win legislative and electoral victories. And I am especially delighted to continue to collaborate with the innovative political teams from the WSLC’s affiliated unions, working together to maintain our independent political voice. Finally, thank you to the leadership team of Larry Brown and April Sims for seeing the value of lifting up young labor leaders and trusting in my ability to do this work.”

Before joining the WSLC in March 2018, Carter earned her political chops in the battleground state of Ohio as a member political organizer for UFCW Local 1059 and a Field Representative of the Ohio AFL-CIO. She was part of the team that overturned SB 5, John Kasich’s “Right-to-Work-for-Less” bill, by taking it to the people of Ohio. She is a veteran of grassroots member-to-member political education programs.

By trade, Carter is a Certified Pharmacy Technician. She also is certified #BlackGirlMagic and radiates magic in everything that she does. She holds degrees in Political Science and African-American and African Studies from The Ohio State University.

Carter is committed to fighting all forms of oppression, and advancing the freedoms of all working people. In the struggle for justice, she is guided by these words: Not needing to clutch for power. Not needing the light just to shine on me. I need to be one in the number as we stand against tyranny. We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.