Kooper Caraway

Kooper Caraway is the President of the South Dakota Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. He became the youngest central-labor-council president in the nation at the age of 27.1 Caraway has a background in community organizing and labor activism:

1. He ran on a reform slate and was elected unanimously to transform the labor council into an organizing powerhouse.1
2. Prior to his role in South Dakota, he organized against ICE raids in his Texas hometown as a teenager.1
3. He joined the labor movement in Dallas and later moved to South Dakota as a state representative for AFSCME.1
4. Caraway has Native American heritage on his mother's side and has made relationships between Native workers and the labor movement a top priority.1

Under his leadership, the South Dakota AFL-CIO has:

• Rewritten their constitution, including banning white supremacists and fascists from holding office in AFL-CIO-affiliated unions.1
• Organized Sioux Fall's first Native American Day parade.1
• Defeated a bill designed to strip university professors of their collective-bargaining rights.1
• Formed an International Solidarity Committee comprised of immigrant and refugee union members.1

Caraway's vision for the labor movement includes reviving prairie populism with an intersectional approach, focusing on organizing and taking over stagnant local unions and labor councils.1