HOUSTON – Vice President Kamala Harris told Republicans to “bring it on” in what she described as a “fight for our most fundamental freedoms” as she spoke to the American Federation of Teachers on Thursday.
It was her latest stop in her whirlwind debut as the Democrats' likely presidential nominee after President Joe Biden abruptly dropped his bid for a second term at the beginning of the week.
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Harris praised unions as the foundation of the middle class, and she criticized Republicans for their views on gun control and public education.
“They have the nerve to tell teachers to strap on a gun in the classroom while they refuse to pass commonsense gun safety laws," she said.
Harris added that “we want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.”
The American Federation of Teachers was the first labor union to formally endorse Harris, and its president Randi Weingarten said she “has electrified this race.”
Harris intends to travel aggressively to spread her message and rally voters. The outreach occurs as the 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.
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.”
Her campaign is seizing on the growing pop culture interest 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.
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 when he lost to Biden, according to AP VoteCast.
Later Thursday, Harris will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.