Harris, Biden target union workers with Labor Day event

Vice President Harris and President Biden will appear together in Pennsylvania at a Labor Day campaign event Monday as the vice president seeks to shore up support from union workers ahead of November.

The event in Pittsburgh will mark Biden and Harris’s first joint appearance on the campaign trail since she replaced him atop the Democratic presidential ticket.

Harris has indicated she intends to carry out much of the same labor policies as Biden, who has long touted himself as the most pro-union president in history. Biden, for example, joined striking autoworkers on the picket line last year, marking the first time a sitting president has done so. 

Harris has received support from several major organized labor groups since becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, including the United Auto Workers (UAW). The union’s president, Shawn Fain, cited Harris’s “track record” with workers.

In a memo released last month, the Harris campaign argued union workers would be a key part of the Democratic ticket’s success in November. The memo, obtained first by The Hill, showcased Harris and Biden’s record of support for organized labor.

Harris has sought to contrast herself from former President Trump, who has insisted union members will back his campaign even in the wake of a public feud with Fain, who has called him a “scab.”

“The Trump-Vance record of attacking and undermining unions at every turn is toxic to working families,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in the memo. “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz have spent their entire career delivering for unions and American workers, and now the nation’s leading unions are putting the full strength of their organizing prowess along with hundreds of millions of dollars to send them to the White House and defeat Trump’s anti-worker agenda.” 

The Harris campaign emphasized that while unions have historically played a large role in “blue wall states” including Michigan and Pennsylvania, they are equally vital in Sun Belt states like Arizona and Nevada.

Trump on Monday posted a Labor Day message to Truth Social in which he also slammed Harris on the economy. 

“Happy Labor Day to all of our American Workers who represent the Shining Example of Hard Work and Ingenuity,” he wrote. “Under Comrade Kamala Harris, all Americans are suffering during this Holiday weekend – High Gas Prices, Transportation Costs are up, and Grocery Prices are through the roof. We can’t keep living under this weak and failed ‘Leadership.’….”

Monday’s stop in Pittsburgh is part of a Labor Day blitz for the Harris campaign. She will spend the earlier part of the holiday campaigning in Detroit, a union hub in the battleground state of Michigan.

Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), is expected to spend the day in Milwaukee along with his wife, while second gentleman Doug Emhoff will be at an event in Newport News, Va., according to the Harris campaign.

The vice president’s trip to the battleground state of Pennsylvania comes as Harris and Trump remain in a tight race, both nationally and in swing states. Harris quickly consolidated Democratic support since replacing Biden atop the Democratic ticket and has threatened the healthy lead Trump had over Biden when he was in the race.

According to a polling index by The Hill and Decision Desk HQ, Harris has a 3.8-point national lead over Trump.

Trump’s allies have contended that taking away even some of Biden’s support among organized labor could make a difference in the race. The former president lost union members by 14 percentage points in 2020 against Biden.

Updated at 12:34 p.m. EDT