Just about three months AFTER THE United Kingdom's elections last May—during which, every serious contender for prime minister talked about credit unions on the campaign trail and every major political party included support for credit unions as a plank in their platforms, a new CU website popped up: middleclass2016.com.
With "Strong Credit Unions. Strong Middle Class." blazoned across the top, the site was created by CUNA with a particular mission in mind: "Let's make sure credit unions are in every candidate's talking points."
After years of largely remaining on the sidelines of presidential campaigns, credit unions are finally making a push to get themselves, their issues—and some 100 million voters who are credit union members—in front of the presidential candidates.
Though CUs and their trades are still largely eschewing contributing to presidential candidates and won't be endorsing any of them, this may be one of the first times that at least two of the plethora of candidates have actually said something about CUs. Sure, one of those candidates is already out of the picture: Carly Fiorina. But the other—U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders—once considered a dark horse running against political powerhouse former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—has been steadily gaining ground.
When I mentioned to a former Capitol Hill staffer that credit unions don't make contributions to presidential campaigns, his immediate, knee-jerk reaction was "that's smart." I was a little surprised by that response, but his thinking was that CUs—while they've become a political force to be reckoned with—still just aren't in a position to donate the kind of money required to really move the needle when it comes to presidential politics.
But unleashing CUs' notorious grassroots—that is a different story entirely. And with all the negative statements coming out of just about every single presidential candidate about Wall Street and big banks, it may be more important than ever to get out the message about the credit union difference.
I remember talking with that same political junkie when he still worked on Capitol Hill during the fight for HR 1151. He said, "can you tell credit unions to call off the dogs already? We can't keep up with phone calls."
Well, this presidential election year, I think it's high time credit unions released the hounds.
Editor in Chief Lisa Freeman can be reached at
