the union “boss” and “big labor” - are a logical, even inevitable target for the G.O.P. In some ways, Randi Weingarten and the A.F.T. One reason for this is that they are actively involved in partisan politics and, more specifically, are closely aligned with the Democrats, a reality powerfully driven home during the pandemic. The unions that represent those teachers, however, are more polarizing. The public education system may not be very popular right now, but both Democrats and Republicans tend to like their local schools and their children’s teachers. did give in excess of $26 million to Democratic candidates and causes in the 2022 election cycle, but the Carpenters and Joiners union gave more than twice as much. She is the longtime president of the American Federation of Teachers, which is not even the country’s biggest union of public school educators. She is Jewish and openly gay - she’s married to a rabbi - and lives in Upper Manhattan. Weingarten is 65 and just over five feet tall. director Mike Pompeo, a man who had dealt firsthand with autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, described Randi Weingarten as “the most dangerous person in the world” last November, it seemed as though he couldn’t possibly be serious.
When the former secretary of state and C.I.A.