Walz in first solo speech as vice presidential candidate touts Dem ticket’s union ties

Harris led the administration’s drive to remove barriers to organizing and cast the tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate to pass the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill in 2021 that Walz said kept public sector workers employed during the pandemic.

As governor, Walz said he made it easier to form unions, strengthened worker protections and banned “the damn meetings of the captive public outright,” referring to meetings that employers can compel them to attend before union votes to discourage support for organizing.

Both Walz and Harris walked picket lines with striking workers, he said.

Walz is the second union member to appear on a presidential ticket since Ronald Reagan, who led the Screen Actors Guild before a career in politics, in 1984. Unlike the two-term Republican president, who engaged in a high-profile standoff with the federal air traffic controllers union, Walz told the audience he would not “lose his way” once elected.

Trump was also a member of SAG-AFTRA, the successor organization to the Screen Actors Guild, when he ran for president in 2016 and 2020. Trump, who was nominated by Republicans in July as their presidential candidate, is no longer a member .

Walz urged the union public to get involved in organizing the campaign, saying that if the group could mobilize friends and neighbors, it could make a difference in an election that could be decided by tens of thousands of votes in a few key states.

“This is going to be a close and tough race,” he said. “But if each one of us works an extra shift, an extra hour, a little bit more, we wake up that morning after the election and know that the work we’ve done has transformed lives for millions, transformed generations, had an impact on the world. .”

He closed with a campaign slogan that Harris used, leading the crowd in a chant: “When we fight, we win.”

The attack on the GOP

Walz called on organized labor to help defend Democratic voters in November.

“I know I’m preaching to the choir a little bit today,” he said. “But the choir must sing.”

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, “were not in the chorus” of union supporters, Walz said.

Trump has said he supports “right-to-work” laws that make it harder to organize, Walz said.

Walz recounted a conversation he had with United Autoworkers President Shawn Fain in which the labor leader called Trump a derisive name for an anti-union worker because of his stance on such laws.

“I saw that our friend Shawn Fain from the UAW had a name for it, he called it scab,” Walz said. “That’s not an insult, it’s an observation actually, just to be clear.”

Project 2025

A second Trump administration would work to “put the screws on working people,” Walz said, noting that sections of the “Project 2025 Task List” call for restricting union organizing and reducing overtime.

Project 2025 is a list of policy goals developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, with input from former Trump administration officials. Democrats have sought to tie Trump to the document, which they describe as a radical conservative.

Trump has denied any involvement in its drafting and has not committed to working on it if elected.

Walz, a former high school football coach, said Trump was “being silly” about the contents of Project 2025.

“I’m a football coach at heart,” he said. “I’ll tell you one thing I know for sure is that if you take the time to put together a manual, you’re damn sure going to use it.”

Broader message

Walz also peppered his remarks with messages apparently aimed at a broader general election audience, supporting reproductive rights and criticizing book ban restrictions that some Republican states have led against content based on gender or race and against the position Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy.

Highlighting the campaign’s theme of freedom, Walz said the government should not be involved in “personal choices” about how to raise a family, what books to read or whether to join a union.

“This country is great because we have a golden rule that makes things work. We mind our own damn business with these things,” he said.

He also defended himself against criticism of his record in the Army National Guard, which has been scrutinized by Republicans, including Vance, who is a Navy veteran. They said Walz exaggerated his role and left his unit months before it deployed to Iraq in 2005.

Walz said he is proud of his 24 years of service in the National Guard, which ended only in 2005 so he could run for Congress, where he joined the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

“I am proud of my service to this country,” he said. “And I strongly believe that you should never denigrate another person’s service record. To anyone brave enough to put on the uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I have just a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice.”