MILWAUKEE — In a charged campaign speech at the city’s annual Labor Festival, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz vowed Monday that he and Vice President Kamala Harris would lead an administration that puts workers first, comparing their policies to those of Republicans led by former President Donald Trump.
“You know that unions and organized labor are more popular today than at any time in our lifetime. Ever,” Walz said. “And you know why? Because it’s in the union halls that the purest form of democracy is practiced.”
Wisconsin Democrats and union members gave Walz a cacophonous and enthusiastic welcome as he stormed onto the stage, then delivered an equally spirited speech that ended with an exhortation to union members and their allies to get out and work for the Harris-Walz Democratic ticket by Election Day on Nov. 5.
On the way from the Milwaukee airport to the event, an accident occurred involving vans traveling at the rear of the Walz motorcade. The Associated Press reported thatThe cause of the crash was not yet clear, but Harris’ campaign said some of the occupants of the vehicles suffered minor injuries, the AP reported.
Walz, whose vehicle was not involved and who was not injured, mentioned the accident at the beginning of his speech. “We’ve talked to the personnel. I’m relieved to say that with some minor injuries, everyone is going to be OK,” he said, thanking the U.S. Secret Service personnel and first responders at the scene.
Labor Fest is an annual Labor Day event at the Milwaukee Lakefront Summer Festival, sponsored by the Milwaukee County Labor Council. The event is a customary venue in Wisconsin for election-year politics. President Joe Biden was the keynote speaker in 2022.
More than 4,000 people were in attendance on Monday, Harris’ campaign said.
Warm-up speakers, including Gov. Tony Evers, U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) and U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is running for re-election, worked to build enthusiasm for the Democratic candidate — a task that, as the noisy cheers from the crowd suggested, took little effort.
Walz was introduced by Rich Kangas, vice president of Iron Workers Local 8, who not only quickly supported Harris’ record in President Joe Biden’s administration but also attacked Trump.
Trump “has been promising infrastructure week for a long time and it never came,” Kangas said. “We didn’t get infrastructure week until Joe Biden and Kamala Harris delivered infrastructure for a decade. The Biden-Harris administration has helped create good, paying union jobs here in Wisconsin and across the country, and every time my brothers and sisters are working, it warms my heart.”
Kangas called Walz “someone who will continue his historic efforts to support unions and workers because he knows that when unions are strong, we are strong.”
Walz’s speech included all the hallmarks of his candidacy since Harris nominated him as her vice presidential running mate: it highlighted his years as a public school teacher and a teachers union member and his passage of legislation as governor that included the introduction of paid family leave and a ban on employers holding mandatory anti-union campaign meetings for workers.
He praised Harris for casting the deciding vote for vice president three months into Biden’s term that led to passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in a Senate evenly split between the two districts.
“And that’s not bragging, if it’s true — she was part of the most pro-union administration in American history,” Walz said. “From standing up for workers to voting for fair legislation to walking the picket lines, she was with workers every step of the way.”
Walz came up with the idea that Trump would attract working people in some special way.
“He knows something about working people, Donald Trump knows something,” Walz said. “He knows how to use them. That’s what he knows. Every time these guys have had the chance, they’ve fought wars on workers and the middle class.”
But he added that the Harris-Walz campaign is not solely focused on issuing warnings about the Trump campaign agenda.
“We have a responsibility to tell people not just what we’re against, but what we’re for,” Walz said, and began ticking off a series of campaign promises: lowering taxes “for working families” and making “corporations pay their fair share”; ensuring that Social Security and Medicare benefits aren’t cut; fighting for a national paid family and medical leave program like the one he signed into law in Minnesota. (The current federal Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, is unpaid.)
“Vice President Harris, I and everyone here believe that you, not politicians, should have the freedom to make decisions about health care,” Walz said.
He nodded, referring to mounting student loan debt. And pointing out that he is a veteran, a hunter and an accomplished shooter and supports the Second Amendment, Walz said that “we believe that our children should have the freedom to go to school without fear of being shot in the hallway.”
Walz criticized Project 2025, a nearly 1,000-page document developed by the Heritage Foundation as a roadmap for a Republican administration.
“The goals of Project 2025 are clear. It should have a subtitle: How to cheat working people,” Walz said, citing legislation that would weaken overtime pay, remove child labor protections and ban public sector unions nationwide.
And he rejected Trump’s campaign’s attempts to distance himself from the plan, citing a different line he has practiced. “I’ve been coaching football long enough,” Walz said. “No, you put in the time to develop a playbook, you’re sure as hell going to use it. You’re sure as hell going to make those plays.”
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