Harris courts minorities amid US poll bump but misses key union’s endorsement
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Ms Kamala Harris had already benefited from the endorsement this year of other major unions including United Auto Workers and the AFL-CIO.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON - Kamala Harris spent a second straight day on Sept 18 courting minority voters, especially Latinos, as fresh polling showed the Democrat receiving a post-debate bump over Donald Trump in two of the swing states likely to decide the US presidency.
With the candidates effectively tied less than seven weeks before Election Day, the US Federal Reserve made news
The move, which sharply lowers borrowing costs for Americans, was well-received by Vice-President Harris, who has looked to highlight her and President Joe Biden’s economic record in her race against Trump.
She called it “welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices,” while the White House said the rate cut marked a “moment of progress” for the US economy.
But in a potential setback for the Harris camp ahead of November’s election, the influential Teamsters union announced it would not endorse a presidential candidate in 2024.
The Teamsters have endorsed every Democratic candidate for president since 2000 but have on occasion endorsed Republicans, including President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Vice-President George H.W. Bush in 1988. It is the first time since 1996 the union is not making an endorsement.
“Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business,” Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien said in a statement.
Union’s internal poll shows nearly 60% support for Trump
The 1.3 million-member union - which represents truck drivers and a wide range of other workers ranging from airline pilots to zookeepers - had released a national electronic poll of its members on Sept 18 that showed rank-and-file members preferred Trump over Ms Harris by 59.6 per cent to 34 per cent. Mr Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race on July 21,
The Teamsters said its own polling data showed that, before
Most major unions have endorsed Ms Harris, including the United Auto Workers union. The AFL-CIO, which represents 60 unions and 12.5 million workers, endorsed her in July.
The Teamsters’ executive board endorsement had been widely anticipated because it was seen as a factor in a handful of battleground states that will decide the Nov 5 election, including Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, where union membership is strong.
Harris campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt noted that despite the national union decision, some Teamsters locals have endorsed Ms Harris. “When she is elected president, she will look out for the Teamsters rank-and-file no matter what - because they always have been and always will be the people she fights for,” Ms Hitt said.
Trump, speaking to reporters at a New York bar, said of the Teamsters decision not to endorse a candidate: “It’s a great honour. They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing.”
‘Mass deportation’ if Trump is elected
The powerful Teamsters’ decision came minutes after Ms Harris told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute of her commitment to working Americans.
“We have to put the middle class first. We have to put the working class first, understanding their dreams and their desires and their ambitions,” she told the group in Washington.
She also warned of mass deportations and “massive detention camps” if Trump returned to office, telling her audience of Hispanic leaders that his immigration agenda was a danger to the country.
“We all remember what they did to tear families apart,” she said the event, which was part of an effort to build up support among Latino voters. “And now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation, a mass deportation, in American history.”
The crowd turned from jovial to silent as the Vice-President asked them to dig deeper into Trump’s proposals, which include plans to round up people in the country illegally on a mass scale and to detain them in camps pending their deportation.
“Imagine what that would look like and what that would be,” she said. “How’s that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps? What are they talking about?”
She paired the attack on Trump’s agenda with pledges to prioritise security at the border and provide an “earned pathway to citizenship”. She has sought a balancing act as polls have shown some Latino voters trust Trump over Democrats on the border.
Many Latino voters have also warmed to Trump’s immigration proposals, including his plan for mass deportations, which US officials say would encounter major legal and logistical hurdles. But he remains unpopular with Latino voters overall, and many Latino voters want to see both tough border security measures and a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.
Since she replaced Mr Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Ms Harris has shown signs of gains with Latino voters, including in the crucial Sun Belt region. But her support among Latinos has still been lower than the traditional Democratic benchmark.
‘Red flag’ for Trump?
Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd during a campaign rally in Uniondale, New York, on Sept 18, 2024.
PHOTO: AFP
The Democratic nominee said the United States must “reform our broken immigration system and protect our Dreamers,” referring to the roughly half million undocumented immigrant youth currently protected by law.
“Understand we can do both, create an earned pathway to citizenship and ensure our border is secure,” she said.
Trump and Republicans have labelled Ms Harris a “border czar” who has failed to curb undocumented migration to the United States.
Trump was set to host a public rally on Long Island, New York later.
Meanwhile, a new poll showed Ms Harris with significant leads over Trump in the swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, two “blue wall” battlegrounds key to victory in November.
The surveys, conducted after the candidates ’ Sept 10 televised debate,
In the latest poll of likely voters by Quinnipiac University, she leads ex-president Trump 51 per cent to 45 per cent in Pennsylvania, and tops him 50-45 per cent in Michigan. A third Rust Belt state, Wisconsin, has her one percentage point ahead.
“Three crucial swing states wave a red flag at the Trump campaign,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.
Trump leads narrowly in the so-called Sun Belt states of Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, according to an amalgam of polls on survey tracker RealClearPolitics.com. It shows Ms Harris barely ahead in the fourth Sun Belt state of Nevada.
‘Earn the vote’
Ms Harris became the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in July, after Mr Biden ended his re-election bid
The candidates were campaigning on Sept 18 in the aftermath of yet another tense moment in an already restive race, three days after a gunman apparently tried to assassinate the former president in Florida.
Trump held a town hall event on Sept 17 before fervent supporters in the beleaguered industrial city of Flint, Michigan, where he boasted that “only consequential presidents get shot at”. He also praised Ms Harris for calling to check on him after the assassination scare.
Trump has said the would-be shooter was a follower of what he called Mr Biden and Ms Harris’ rhetoric that he is a threat to US democracy.
Ms Harris, who is half Black and half Indian-American, was interviewed for an hour on Sept 17 by the National Association of Black Journalists in Pennsylvania, where she said she was “working to earn the vote” of African-American men, and not just assuming they would cast ballots for her because she is Black. AFP, NYTIMES, REUTERS
