Kamala’s V.P. Pick Sparks Major Endorsements That Should Scare Trump

Organized labor is giving a resounding thumbs-up to Kamala Harris’s vice presidential pick.

Following Harris’s announcement Tuesday that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would be her running mate, union endorsements poured in one by one.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions, announced its support of Walz. “By selecting Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Kamala Harris chose a principled fighter and labor champion who will stand up for working people and strengthen this historic ticket,” said Liz Shuler, president of AFL-CIO.

Another exciting endorsement came from the United Auto Workers, which had initially taken longer to endorse Harris. “Tim Walz has been a great governor and is going to make a great vice-president. He’s stood with the working class every step of the way, and has walked the walk, including on a UAW picket line last fall,” said UAW President Shawn Fain, who leads nearly 400,000 active members, including more than 100,000 in the swing state of Michigan.

Other unions also celebrated Walz’s pick, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, the National Education Association, or NEA, and the American Federation of Teachers, or AFT, with their union president, Randi Weingarten, writing that the “AFT’s 1.8 million members will stand with Walz and Harris over the next 12 weeks as they campaign to realize the promise and potential of America.” Union leader Sara Nelson of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, or AFA, also chimed in, writing that Walz is “in touch with the country and what we need to win.”

Prior to Harris’s announcement, more than two dozen labor leaders in Minnesota sent a letter to Harris asking her to pick Walz as her running mate. 

In his time as governor, Walz fought for Minnesota workers, passing paid sick leave, parental leave, and protections from noncompete agreements and anti-union meetings. He also passed the “nation’s strongest set of protections against wage theft.”

Before working in politics, Walz was a social studies teacher and union member.

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is desperately trying to find a line of attack after Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s addition to the Democratic presidential ticket. And all he’s come up with so far is that Kamala Harris is caving “to the Hamas wing of her own party.”

Vance made the remarks after his flight landed in Philadelphia Tuesday morning, where he later spoke at a rally for the Trump campaign.

“Many, many people said repeatedly that the reason Kamala Harris was going away from the Josh Shapiro selection is because they were worried about antisemitism,” Vance said on the plane. “They were worried about certain voters; they were worried about some of the leaders and the grassroots activists in their party wouldn’t take a Jewish nominee.

“I think it’s despicable. I think it’s disgusting. But that is right out of the words of many members of the Democratic leadership, and so now we have Tim Walz,” Vance added.

Later, at a press conference in the city of brotherly love, Vance again claimed that Harris and the Democrats were motivated by prejudice by not choosing Shapiro.

“I genuinely feel bad that for days, maybe even weeks, the guy actually had to run away from his Jewish heritage because of what the Democrats are saying about him. I think that’s scandalous and disgraceful,” Vance said. “Whatever disagreements on policy you have about somebody, the fact that that race, the vice presidential race on the Democratic side, became so focused on his ethnicity, I think is absolutely disgraceful.”

Vance’s comments seem to be piggybacking on attacks on Walz from earlier on Tuesday. Several Republicans, including Senator Tom Cotton, called the decision to choose Walz over Shapiro antisemtic. Even before the Harris campaign made the announcement, Vance claimed that Democrats’ overlooking Shapiro would be due to antisemitism.

If this is what Republicans think will work, it’s kind of a joke. Neither Vance nor Trump are Jewish, and of the 33 Jewish members of Congress, only two in the House are Republicans, with zero Jewish Republican senators. Harris’s husband, Douglas Emhoff, as well as her two stepchildren, are Jewish.

This attack certainly won’t stop people from calling Vance and Trump weird, especially since the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, also happens to be Jewish, which he pointed out on X in response to these attacks.

Meanwhile, Trump isn’t making any campaign appearances until Friday, when he’s scheduled to speak in Montana, while the Harris campaign’s schedule is packed with battleground states with only Vance making similar stops. And that isn’t the only way the Trump campaign is trailing Harris’s, aside from the polls: Vance tried to call Walz earlier Tuesday morning, but only got his voicemail.

Donald Trump’s campaign is taking aim at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for backing a policy that gives convicted felons the right to vote, conveniently forgetting that their candidate is also a convicted felon.

Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt released a statement Tuesday decrying Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of “Radical Leftist Tim Walz” as her running mate.

Leavitt criticized Walz for “embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote,” as part of his obsession “with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.”

As Minnesota governor, Walz signed a bill in June 2023 restoring the right to vote to more than 50,000 Minnesotans on parole, probation, or community release due to a felony conviction.

Despite Leavitt’s griping, Trump himself is the beneficiary of a policy allowing convicted felons to vote.

Trump is currently still eligible to vote in Florida, where he is registered, because Florida election law says that he has that right so long as he is able to vote in the state where he was convicted. In New York state, a person is only disenfranchised while incarcerated, so unless Trump is sentenced to prison in his New York hush-money trial, he can still vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

In an astounding feat of doublethink, Team Trump seems to want voters to be angry that convicted felons can vote, while simultaneously hoping that they’ll vote for a convicted felon—and that said convicted felon can vote for himself come November.

After Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was chosen as Kamala Harris’s running mate, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders immediately attacked him—only to get trolled by the internet.

“In her first big decision Kamala reveals who she answers to—the far left,” Sanders posted on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday morning. The replies to her tweet quickly called her out.

Several commentators pointed out the contrast between their records as governors—Sanders loosened child labor protections while Walz made school lunches free. Even their photo ops with children show disappointment versus happiness.

Others pointed out the absurdity of calling Walz “far left”—as if that attack line would work on a military veteran, high school football coach, and teacher.

These early attacks, along with a panicked angry email from the Trump campaign, show that the GOP doesn’t have much of an attack line against Walz right now. It’s fitting that the man who coined the Democrats’ favorite “weird” criticism of Republicans isn’t easily attacked himself. On top of that, Trump and Republicans still haven’t come up with a good way to attack Harris. The only question is whether all of this will lead to Democrats retaining the White House in November.

Conservatives have begun claiming that it was antisemitic for Kamala Harris to tap Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, instead of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. But when examining Walz’s actual record on Israel, their phony meltdown doesn’t quite ring true.

It seems that Republicans are hoping to push the narrative that Walz was selected over Shapiro because Shapiro is Jewish.

“Let’s be clear: Kamala didn’t *cave* to the antisemitic, pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party. She *belongs* to the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic party,” wrote violently pro-Israel Republican Senator Tom Cotton in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Conservative radio talk show host Dana Loesch claimed that picking Walz over Shapiro was done to “not upset their anti-Jewish voters who carry a lot of influence in their party now.”

Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino seemingly couldn’t believe that Harris had selected Walz. “Unless @JoshShapiroPA was caught in bed w a live boy or dead girl this VP choice tells you something scary about the Dem Party and antisemitism pure and simple,” Gasparino wrote in a post on X.

Before Walz was even announced, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance claimed that if Harris didn’t pick Shapiro, it would be “out of anti-Semitism in their own caucus and in their own party.”

Republican commentator Eric Erickson wrote simply, “No Jews allowed at the top of the Democratic Party.” Of course, of the 35 Jewish members of the current Congress, only two are Republican. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is also Jewish.

Like Erickson’s hollow critique, this conservative meltdown is completely made up: For a pick determined by so-called antisemitism, Walz’s appointment has already received significant support from pro-Israel groups.

As soon as Harris’s decision was announced Tuesday morning, the Democratic Majority for Israel released a statement expressing its support for Walz, and lauding the moderate Democrat for his record on Israel.

“As governor, he has been a steadfast supporter of the pro-Israel movement in Minnesota,” the statement said. “In the wake of Hamas’ barbaric October 7th attacks, Governor Walz ordered state flags to be flown at half-mast and condemned the ‘horrific attacks on Israel by Hamas,’ and, at a vigil for the victims, asked anyone who did not immediately condemn the assault to ‘reevaluate where you’re at.’”

The group highlighted Walz’s support of U.S.-backed military aid to Israel and work to increase Holocaust education in Minnesota. When speaking at an AIPAC conference in 2010, Walz called Israel “our truest and closest ally in the region, with a commitment to values of personal freedoms and liberties, surrounded by a pretty tough neighborhood.”

J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby also released a statement supporting Walz, obtained by Forward. “We know the Harris-Walz team will stand up for our shared values, protect our community, and pursue smart, pro-Israel, pro-peace leadership abroad. We’re all in,” said the group, which had previously endorsed Walz.

Recently, Walz has presented a more nuanced stance on Israel. During the primaries, he said that those who voted “uncommitted” to protest President Joe Biden’s support for Israel in its catastrophic military campaign in Gaza were “civically engaged.”

“People are frustrated, but it bodes well, for me, that they’re actively engaged to go out and cast this vote and ask for change,” Walz said at the time.

As pro-Palestinian protests spread across the country, Walz said that students “need to be able to express opinions,” and that included Jewish students as well. “When Jewish students are telling us they feel unsafe, we need to believe them, and I do believe them,” he said.

Walz’s apparent open-mindedness and more moderate position came in sharp relief to Shapiro, who has been egregiously bad on Palestine. As former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on CNN Monday night, dismissing Shapiro had little to do with antisemitism.

“I think it’s probably more about policy,” she said.