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Harris, Biden to campaign in Pittsburgh on Labor Day

Ryan Deto
| Tuesday, August 27, 2024 4:39 p.m.
AP
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in Maryland earlier this month.

Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden are coming to Pittsburgh on Labor Day as part of a barnstorming blitz by Democrats across battleground states.

Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, is joining Biden for the first time on the campaign trail since he dropped out of the race and endorsed her to run in his place.

Harris will start Monday in Detroit, the nerve center of the United Auto Workers labor union, before joining Biden in Pittsburgh, where the pair will participate in events with local labor leaders.

Their visit will come three days after former President Donald J. Trump holds a rally in Johnstown, just 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, and five days after his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, appears in Erie.

Pennsylvania is figuring prominently in the race for the White House.

Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at an event in Philadelphia. Earlier this month the pair swept through Western Pennsylvania on a bus tour that took them to Allegheny and Beaver counties.

Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13 in Butler County, and he has since returned to Pennsylvania, appearing in Wilkes-Barre and York.

The Harris campaign said the candidates will be participating in Labor Day parades, but it’s unclear if Harris and Biden will be marching in Pittsburgh’s parade, one of the biggest in the country.

The campaign has garnered several large union endorsements this cycle, including from the Pittsburgh-based United Steelworkers and Iron Workers International, which traces its roots back to Pittsburgh.

“The Biden-Harris administration is the most pro-union administration in history. Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’ leadership, support for union membership has grown to its highest level in half a century,” the Harris campaign said in a press release.

Labor union leaders in Pittsburgh and Detroit have embraced Biden and Harris.

Biden met with the steelworkers union in April at their Downtown Pittsburgh headquarters. He has voiced opposition to the pending sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese steel giant Nippon Steel.

“Steelworkers aren’t shy about sharing our opinions,” United Steelworkers President David McCall said at the time. “We want the kind of jobs that can help us raise families. We want fair trade so that bad actors can’t undercut our jobs. We know President Biden values this, too.”

The UAW’s support has been even more pronounced, and they were one of the first large unions to endorse Harris when she became the presumptive nominee.

Last September, Biden joined striking auto workers on the picket line in Michigan. And last week, on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Shawn Fain, president of the union, which has more than 400,000 active members, wore a “Trump is a scab: Vote Harris” T-shirt.

Biden has visited Pittsburgh on Labor Day several times over the years, making a visit to the Steel City an unofficial tradition. In 2022, he spoke outside a United Steelworkers hall in West Mifflin.

Harris seems to be following suit. She visited the Pittsburgh area 10 days ago with Walz, her running mate. The pair toured several spots in Allegheny and Beaver counties, including regional staples like a Sheetz gas station and a Primanti Bros. restaurant, and spoke with the Aliquippa High School football team.

Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council President Darrin Kelly said he is proud to host Harris and Biden on Labor Day.

“It is fitting that he and Vice President Harris will be back here with us, on our day, as we celebrate all that their administration has accomplished for working families and commit ourselves to the final months of the fight to elect Kamala Harris so we can keep moving forward together,” Kelly said.

Both Harris-Walz and Trump-Vance will be giving Pennsylvania its due as a crucial swing state whose prize is 19 Electoral College votes.

Walz will be campaigning in Milwaukee on Monday and then join Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, at a Labor Day event in Newport News, Va.

The Harris-Walz campaign said it would also send surrogates to other battleground states, including North Carolina, Nevada, and Georgia.


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