Harris, Biden to hold first joint campaign event on Labor Day

Vice President Harris and President Biden will make their first appearance together on the campaign trail since Harris replaced Biden atop the Democratic ticket during a Labor Day event in Pennsylvania.

Harris’s campaign said the vice president will spend the holiday Monday campaigning in Detroit and Pennsylvania. Harris will join Biden in Pittsburgh for an event to tout their support for unions, the campaign said.

The two had previously appeared together for an official White House event to highlight savings on Medicare drugs, but Monday will be the first time they share the stage on the campaign trail.

Pennsylvania is a crucial battleground in November’s election, and Biden had previously signaled he would spend time in the commonwealth in support of Harris.

The joint event is part of a Labor Day blitz the Harris campaign is planning. 

In addition to Harris’s two stops, the campaign said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and his wife, Gwen, would spend the day in Milwaukee. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will attend an event in Newport News, Va.

Other surrogates will also fan out to battleground states, the campaign said, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) and campaign co-Chair Mitch Landrieu.

Harris has earned the support of several major organized labor groups since she replaced Biden atop the Democratic ticket, including the United Auto Workers (UAW). Harris has signaled she will carry on with much of the same labor policies as Biden, who often touted himself as the most pro-union president in history and joined striking autoworkers on the picket line last year.

Former President Trump has repeatedly argued that union members will back his campaign even as he spars with union leadership, most notably UAW President Shawn Fain, who has blasted Trump as a “scab.”

Trump’s allies have argued that peeling off even some of Biden’s support from organized labor could make a difference in what is expected to be a close election. The former president lost union members by 14 percentage points in 2020 against Biden.