Walz Seeks Union Support In Manitowoc Stop

Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz on Monday said a Kamala Harris presidency would support Wisconsin unions and bolster the state’s manufacturing sector by building upon recent federal investments.

A little more than a week before election day, Walz spoke to union members at a manufacturing facility in Manitowoc Monday morning, before heading to Waukesha for a political event in the afternoon.

It was one of a series of visits to Wisconsin by both the Harris and Trump campaigns this week as they make their final sprint through swing states with early voting already underway.

JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, was also in Wisconsin Monday, making stops in Wausau and Racine. Vice President Kamala Harris will hold a rally in Madison on Wednesday, and former President Donald Trump will be in suburban Green Bay on Wednesday and Milwaukee on Friday.

At Manitowoc Pattern and Machining, Walz said a Harris administration would implement pro-worker policies to build American industrial strength.

The Minnesota governor said he and Vice President Harris would create an “American forward strategy for manufacturing” that builds on federal investments like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. He said their administration would seek to lead the way in “industries of the future” so that American manufacturing can continue to innovate.

“We’ll cut red tape to unleash American potential and industry so we can build more and build faster,” Walz said. “We’ll create an America forward tax credit that ramps up investments to create more jobs in strategic industries essential to our economic growth and our national security, and tax cuts that reward companies that guarantee the right of workers to organize.”

He added that their administration would seek to eliminate degree requirements for “half a million federal jobs.” He also said Harris would sign the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which aims to make it easier for unions to form, if the bill reached her desk as president.

Walz, a former union member, also touted his record as governor of Minnesota, saying he signed one of the largest packages of pro-worker policies in that state’s history. According to NPR, Walz signed legislation that gave workers paid sick and family leave, created protections for Amazon warehouse workers and gave Uber and Lyft drivers a minimum wage.

“It is making Minnesota one of the best states for workers, and guess what, one of the best states for business. You can do both,” Walz said. “That’s Kamala’s vision for the entire country, where workers are respected, they’re lifted up, they’re paid, they’re protected and we grow our economy.”

Walz made the appeal to workers in Manitowoc County, a county where Trump took about 60 percent of the vote in 2020 while losing to President Joe Biden statewide.

Both political parties have been trying to make the case to unions and working class voters this election cycle. The president of the national Teamsters union spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, while the president of the United Automobile Workers spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Trump has held a sizeable polling advantage among voters without college degrees throughout the campaign.

The crowd of roughly 50 people who gathered for Walz’s event in Manitowoc was made up of a mix of union members from the Milwaukee area and workers from Manitowoc.

DeLeon Jamison, the vice president of United Steelworkers Local 2-232 in Milwaukee, made the drive to northeast Wisconsin to show his support what he called Walz and Harris’s pro-worker agenda.

“We want to see them go on to win because they support the PRO Act, which will help further us and bring power back to the unions and back to the people, so that we can continue our fight for worker issues,” Jamison said.

Jennifer Maldonado, a supervisor for a unionized aluminum foundry in Manitowoc, attended the event and said economic growth is important to her. But as a mother, she said she’s also “extremely” concerned about reproductive rights this election.

“I don’t want anybody to be telling me or my daughters how to control their bodies,” Maldonado said.

Another Manitowoc resident who attended Walz’s event was Matthew Sauer, a pastor who runs the local warming shelter. He said he’s supporting Harris and Walz because he thinks they will support human dignity, freedom and equality.

“I’m not supporting candidates, I’m supporting humanity, and they happen to stand on that same side,” Sauer said. “We need to be a land where just because you’re poor, or just because you’ve come from another place doesn’t mean you’re inhuman.”

While Walz used the stop to pitch how a Harris presidency would work to support Wisconsin workers, the Trump campaign says Harris and Biden have taken credit for creating manufacturing jobs that were added back after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Trump campaign argues that Trump will cut taxes on American manufacturers and regulations resulting in job creation.

But Walz argued Trump had a record of losing jobs and making false promises, and highlighted how Trump praised Tesla CEO Elon Musk for firing striking workers.

“That’s how he thinks about you,” Walz said. “He thinks your jobs are a joke.”

As Walz was meeting with union workers in Manitowoc, Trump supporters waited to attend the Vance event at the Wausau Downtown Airport.

Paula Meadows, 67, of Wausau wore a “Veterans for Trump” shirt. She said her top issue is immigration.

“We need to close up the border and we need to vet the people that are here,” she said. “If we have criminals that are here, that have entered our country, we need to get them out.”

She said anyone who entered the U.S. illegally is a criminal, though she doubted that Trump in a second term would carry out the mass deportations he has run on, saying that people would “go underground” to avoid detection.

Kathy Schult of Wausau said her top issue is bringing down the high cost of food and other necessities. A retiree, she also feels it’s important to protect Social Security. She said she believes Vance will be “a good influence” on Trump.

“He’s going to let him know what he thinks,” Schult said. “And I think Trump will want to hear what he has to say.”

Bruce Melco took the day off from his job selling furniture to volunteer at the event in Wausau. He said he was thrilled to be “part of saving the country.”

“We have a chance of digging out of the hole,” he said. “I just want America not to sink.”

A polling average published by the political website FiveThirtyEight shows the race between Trump and Harris is essentially tied in Wisconsin.

Listen to the WPR report

Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz makes appeal to unions at Manitowoc manufacturing stop was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.