By John J. Sweeney

Read more from President Sweeney.

You name it. The minimum wage. Fair pay for women. Unemployment insurance extension. Lowering prescription drug prices for seniors. Economic stimulus for working families. Collective bargaining for first responders. And, of course, the Employee Free Choice Act.

Every legislative priority of working families during this Congress has been stymied or stopped by the minority in the U.S. Senate, which has broken records in its use of the filibuster to halt legislation.

Even when (not if) we elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden to the White House to win for working families on Capitol Hill, we need 60 friends in the Senate who can bust the minority's filibusters. If we want health care for all, an economy that works for working families and the freedom to form unions and bargain without corporate intimidation, we've got to elect the senators who will make it happen.

If we want to turn around America, we've got to replace senators like Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who earned a shameful lifetime voting record on working family issues of 5 percent while he was in the U.S. House. He voted for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and trade with China and supports the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—and his campaign recently said losing "low-skilled" manufacturing jobs from the state is a good thing. His opponent, former Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, thinks NAFTA and CAFTA were “two of the worst trade agreements in modern history” and is a proven champion of economic growth for the Gulf Coast.

And we could do far better than John Sununu (R-N.H.), who loves tax breaks for the big oil companies—generous contributors to his campaign—but voted to strip overtime pay protections from some 6 million workers and pushed for drastic cuts in the health programs for low-income and elderly people. His lifetime voting record on working family issues? Ten percent. Sununu's opponent, former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D), created jobs, expanded children's health care and has vowed to “work every day to put America back on track and ensure that all Americans…earn a fair salary.”

Now turn to Kentucky: Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who has led the filibuster strategy, has pledged “not to allow [the Employee Free Choice Act] out of the Senate” and voted to abolish the federal minimum wage. His lifetime voting record on working family issues is 11 percent, meaning he has voted against us 89 percent of the time. It's McConnell's venomous approach to legislating that requires us to have 60 votes in the Senate to make any gains for working people. Challenging McConnell's seat is Bruce Lunsford, who supports our voice at work, wants to protect our retirement security from corporate bankruptcy schemes and Social Security privatization and is ready to redirect tax breaks for Big Oil toward renewable energy and crack down on gas price gougers.

The coming election will determine whether working men and women are able to leave their children a better or worse America, more or less opportunity, more or less hope. We must have leaders who will work for us in the White House—and in the Senate.

When you tie on the gloves to fight for working families in this election, remember how critical your Senate vote is for all of us.