Democrats had a busy campaign schedule this Labor Day, with Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spending the day appealing to union workers in major swing states.
Former President Donald Trump, on the other hand, mostly stayed out of the spotlight as the two candidates gear up for next week’s debate.
Here’s what happened on the campaign trail today:
Harris supports a domestically owned US Steel: Harris said for the first time that US Steel should remain domestically owned, saying during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh that it is “vital for our nation to maintain strong American steel companies.” Her remarks echoed Biden’s stance against a proposed sale of US Steel to Nippon Steel, Japan’s biggest steelmaker. During an earlier event in Detroit, Harris also vowed to ensure the “PRO Act,” legislation that would ensure workers’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain for workplace changes, and to “end union busting once and for all.”
Biden goes back to his roots in Pennsylvania: Biden emerged as a powerful surrogate at a joint event with Harris in Pittsburgh, reappearing in a city that he has often visited over the course of his political career and attempting to boost Harris in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Biden said that he “celebrated many Labor Days in Pittsburgh” and that it was “good to be back to so many great friends.”
Walz’s motorcade gets into a crash: While en route to an event in Milwaukee, several vehicles in Walz’s motorcade were involved in a crash, and some passengers were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Walz, who was not injured, made it to the event, where he touted that he was in “the pocket” of unions, pitching himself as a working-class vice presidential candidate as he tests his campaigning skills in the Midwestern “blue wall.”
Trump stays out of the spotlight: The former president and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, had no scheduled events Monday. Trump, in an interview that aired Sunday, said he had “every right to” interfere with a presidential election, as he faces an updated indictment in the federal election interference case against him.
