A high-stakes battle for working-class votes is playing out at the International Association of Firefighters Convention in Boston, where Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is set to speak on Thursday, just a day after Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) addressed the same crowd.
Walz, who spoke to the union on Wednesday, highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris’s support for pro-labor legislation and touted his own background as a public school teacher. He vowed to have the union’s back if he and Harris win the election, telling members, “We’ll have your back just like you’ve had ours this entire time.”
Walz’s appearance at the convention was his second major speech as Harris’s running mate, following a recent address to a conference of municipal workers in Los Angeles. His selection as Harris’s running mate was partly due to his reputation as a pro-union leader, which has earned him the respect of labor leaders.
Meanwhile, Vance has been crisscrossing the country, speaking to working-class voters and touting his own Rust Belt roots, as detailed in his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy. On Wednesday, he spoke to truckers in Erie, Pennsylvania, a key swing county, and made headlines for his scathing criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Vance’s appearance at the firefighters’ convention on Thursday will be introduced by Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), a former firefighter himself. The dueling appearances by Vance and Walz underscore the intense competition between the two parties for the support of working-class voters.
