Harris is propelling presidential push with a speech to a teachers union

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris talks after receiving a briefing on Hurricane Beryl recovery efforts at the City of Houston Emergency Operation Center in Houston, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, as Houston Mayor Houston Mayor John Whitmire, second from right, listens. (Brendan Smialowski/Pool via AP)

Vice President Kamala Harris is propelling her presidential push by speaking Thursday to the American Federation of Teachers, the first labor union to formally endorse her candidacy.

Having emerged as the likely Democratic nominee after President Joe Biden exited the race, Harris intends to travel aggressively to spread her message and rally voters. The outreach occurs as the former and retooled Biden campaign, now under Harris’ control, figures out its strategy for generating turnout and maximizing her time in a 100-plus day sprint to the November election against Republican Donald Trump.

But in Trump, Harris is up against the survivor of a recent assassination attempt with tens of millions of loyalists committed to returning him to the Oval Office. Just as Harris is trying to draw a contrast with Trump, he is working to do the same with her.

Trump went on the offensive at a rally Wednesday in North Carolina, calling Harris a “real liberal” who is “much worse” than Biden. The former president claimed without evidence that Harris had misled voters about the health of the 81-year-old Biden and his ability to run for the presidency.

Harris’ appearance at the teachers union’s biennial convention in Houston follows a rally Tuesday in the Milwaukee area and a speech Wednesday to a gathering of the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta in Indianapolis.

“We know when we organize, mountains move,” she told sorority members. “When we mobilize, nations change. And when we vote, we make history.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.’s Grand Boulé, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Her campaign is seizing on the growing pop culture frenzy surrounding her candidacy, releasing a video Thursday that is set to Beyonce’s “Freedom.” The video, designed for social media consumption, underscores a core message of Harris campaign — freedom on abortion rights, freedom from gun violence and freedom “not just to get by, but to get ahead.”

The 1.8 million-member AFT has backed Harris and her pro-union agenda on the premise that a second Trump term could result in restrictions on organized labor and a potential loss of funding for education.

Randi Weingarten, the union’s president, posted on social media that “We are fully committed to this fight: united, mobilized and ready to vote in this year’s election.”

The AFL-CIO, which represents 60 labor unions including the AFT, has backed Harris. But the vice president has yet to get the endorsement of the United Auto Workers, whose president, Shawn Fain, told CNBC this week that the union’s executive board will make that decision.

Fain spoke at the AFT conference on Wednesday and was blistering in his criticism of Trump. The former president has relied on blue-collar voters to compete politically nationwide, but he failed to win a majority of union households in 2020 and lost to Biden, according to AP VoteCast.

“It’s very clear a Donald Trump White House would be a disaster for the working class,” Fain said. “Donald Trump is a scab. He stands for everything that we as union and in the labor movement stand against.”

Later Thursday, Harris will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.