Tim Walz focuses on union vote during Labor Day campaign visit to Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Gov. Tim Walz spent Labor Day on the campaign trail talking to union workers.
Walz said at Laborfest in Milwaukee that the Harris-Walz ticket will best represent union workers' interests, including their health care.
"Vice President Harris and myself believe, and everyone here believes, you should be here to make your own health care decisions — not politicians," Walz said.
Earlier on Monday, at Twin Cities International, Walz and his wife met with local labor leaders. Both are former teachers and members of the Education Minnesota — something the union's president takes to heart.
"At a time when there is an educator shortage, at a time when morale is at an all-time low, to see a teacher elevated this way — he is one of us and it means everything," Denise Specht said.
But in recent years, union members have been drifting away from the Democratic Party. The president of the Minnesota Building Trade Council says Democrats need to work to get them back.
"Our membership has changed. We would tell them who they should vote for and they would vote. Now we have to make the case. We can't just take it for granted," Dan McConnell said.
Democratic analyst Abou Amara agrees Democrats cannot take the labor vote for granted.
"Unions still do the performance of politics, and what I mean is knocking on doors, making phone calls, dropping off literature. Unions play an important role in the campaign infrastructure," Amara said.
Harris also spoke to union workers Monday in Detroit and with President Biden in Pittsburgh.
Neither former President Donald Trump nor his running make JD Vance had any public events Monday.
On the way to that rally in Milwaukee, part of Walz's motorcade was involved in a minor crash.