Harris Touts ‘Pro-Worker’ Campaign in Teachers’ Union Speech

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at West Allis Central High School in West Allis, Wis., on July 23, 2024. (Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris pitched her campaign’s “pro-worker” focus in a speech at the American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) 88th national convention in Houston on July 25.

“The fact is, unions helped build America’s middle class, and when unions are strong, America is strong,” she told the cheering audience of teachers and administrators.

As her presidential campaign enters its fifth day, Ms. Harris has visited Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and now Houston to make her pitch to American voters, casting her platform as one “focused on the future.”

“In this moment, we are in a fight for our most fundamental freedoms. And to this room of leaders, I say, bring it on,” Ms. Harris said.

The vice president thanked the AFT for giving her campaign its first union endorsement this week and pledged to prioritize public education as president, support workers, pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, ensure affordable health care, ban “assault weapons,” and guarantee access to abortion.

Union Endorsements

She earned another union endorsement on Thursday after Laborers’ International Union of North America General President Brent Booker issued a statement of support.

“Vice President Harris has been a key partner in leading the most pro-union White House ever,” he said, joining the Service Employees International Union and Communications Workers of America, which also endorsed Ms. Harris this week.

“She played a critical role in advancing the biggest investment in our nation’s infrastructure in modern times, and in doing so, is helping to create hundreds of thousands of good union jobs.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten introduced Ms. Harris on Thursday and said she is “best prepared to lead our country out of crisis and to a brighter future.”

“This is the most pro-labor, pro-worker, pro-family, [and] pro-public education administration in our history,” Ms. Weingarten said, referring to the Biden–Harris administration.

Biden Address

The vice president began her speech by thanking President Joe Biden for his “continued service to our nation” after the president addressed the nation on Wednesday night, explaining his reasons for dropping out of the race.

“He thinks about our history in the context of the importance of the work we do now. And over the past three and a half years and over his entire career, Joe has led with grace and strength, and bold vision, and deep compassion,” she said.

Ms. Harris celebrated teachers as those doing “God’s work educating our children” and described herself as a “proud product of public education.”

She recounted her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Francis Wilson, who pushed Ms. Harris to succeed as a student and later sat in the audience when Ms. Harris received her law school diploma.

“It is because of Mrs. Wilson and so many teachers like her that I stand before you as vice president of the United States of America, and that I am running to become president of the United States,” she said, as applause drowned out her words.

Ms. Harris called teachers visionaries who shape the nation’s future by seeing the potential in every child, emphasizing that her campaign is a “vision of the future.”

“We see a future with affordable health care, affordable child care, and paid leave—not for some, but for all,” she said.

“We see a future where every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive, and a future where no teacher has to struggle with the burden of student loan debt.”

She also briefly criticized the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plan to dissolve the Department of Education, linking the project to the Trump campaign and Reagan-era “trickle-down economics.”

She said America has tried these economic policies before. “But we are not going back. No, we will move forward.”

Republican Response

Meanwhile, House Republicans approved a resolution on Thursday in a 220–196 vote condemning the Biden administration for its “failure to secure the United States border” while pointing out that Ms. Harris was assigned by the president as border czar, an unofficial title.

The president asked Ms. Harris in March 2021 to lead a diplomatic campaign to find the “root causes” of illegal immigration from nations in Central America. The resolution links the border crisis to Ms. Harris’s leadership. Six Democrats voted “yes” on the resolution.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.

During her speech before the AFT, Ms. Harris thanked unions for spearheading worker benefits such as five-day work weeks, eight-hour workdays, sick leave, paid family leave, and vacation time.

“When workers join together and demand what is fair, everyone is better off.”

Ms. Harris concluded by suggesting each voter now faces a question heading into the final 100 days of the 2024 election.

“What kind of country do we want to live in?” she asked. “The beauty of our democracy is that we each have the power to answer that question when we vote. And when we vote, we make our voices heard.”