Harris campaign memo cites importance of labor support ahead of UAW event

The Harris campaign argued in a memo Thursday that union workers would help drive the Democratic ticket’s success in November ahead of a meeting in Detroit with United Auto Workers (UAW) members.

Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), were set to meet Thursday afternoon with UAW members for their second campaign stop in as many days in the crucial battleground state of Michigan.

In a memo obtained first by The Hill, the Harris campaign highlighted the duo's record of support for organized labor and asserted that the backing of major unions would be especially beneficial in a fractured media environment.

“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 a 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.” 

Chavez Rodriguez noted that while unions have historically played a pivotal role in Blue Wall states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, they are just as important in Sun Belt states like Nevada and Arizona.

“In a fragmented media environment, union leadership is uniquely effective at breaking through to their members and are one of the most trusted institutions among their members,” she wrote. “There are 2.7 million union members in the battleground states. That means something when roughly 45,000 votes in key states decided the election four years ago.”

She added that the campaign and organized labor groups would combine to spend “hundreds of millions of dollars to reach and turn out union voters this November.”  

The memo also highlighted Harris’s record of supporting unions, citing her work as attorney general and in the Senate, where she walked the picket line in 2019 with striking UAW and McDonald’s workers in Nevada. 

Chavez Rodriguez also highlighted that Walz, a former teacher, was a union member as part of the National Education Association and has signed pro-worker legislation as governor.

Harris has earned the support of several major organized labor groups since she replaced President Biden atop the Democratic ticket, including the UAW. Harris has signaled she will carry on with much of the same labor policies as Biden, who often touted himself as the most pro-union president in history.

Former President Trump has repeatedly argued that union members will back his campaign even as he spars with union leadership, most notably UAW president Shawn Fain.

Trump’s allies have argued that peeling off even some of Biden's support among organized labor could make a difference in what is expected to be a close election. The former president lost union members by 14 percentage points in 2020 against Biden.

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention (RNC) after Trump met with the group earlier this year to court their endorsement. The Teamsters have not formally endorsed a candidate in the presidential race.