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Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a 2024 presidential election campaign event in Summerville, South Carolina.
Trump makes his Michigan pitch
As autoworkers walk picket lines in 21 states, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are both in Michigan, the heart of the American auto industry, trying to woo union workers. Both men hope to win support from voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, three states with large numbers of union members that proved decisive in both the 2016 election of Trump and the 2020 election of Biden. That’s where the similarity in their messages ends.
On Tuesday, Biden told members of the United Auto Workers, a powerful labor union, that he stands with them in their fight with automakers for better pay and working conditions. This evening in a Detroit suburb, Trump will tell union members that Biden is lying to them about their true enemy: It’s not their employers who are cheating them but the leaders of their unions, who are in league with woke liberals and a fake environmental agenda that will kill their jobs, allowing foreign countries (mainly China) to take advantage of America and its workers.
Meanwhile, 2,300 miles away in Simi Valley, California, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum will debate before the diminishing number of Republican voters still looking for a Trump GOP alternative. The debate begins Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET and will air live on the FOX Business and Univision cable networks.Striking UAW workers picket outside a Stellantis facility in Center Line, Michigan, on Sept. 22, 2023.
Biden’s auto dilemma
Today, President Joe Biden will join striking autoworkers on the picket line in Michigan.
Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, will be in the Great Lake State tomorrow, but he’s expected to use a speech in Detroit to pit workers against leaders of their union, the United Auto Workers.
In some ways, Biden has the tougher political task. His image as “friend of the working man” stands at odds with the current image of his Democratic Party which, in the words of pundit and activist Paul Begala, “has gone from being the party of the factory floor to the party of the faculty lounge.” Biden’s outspoken support for labor unions – and the historical rarity of a US president joining a picket line – demonstrate his political commitment to win more working-class votes.
There’s an even more direct political calculus here. To win reelection, Biden badly needs Michigan, home to a big share of US autoworkers. The percentage of union members is also high in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trump won in 2016 because he won all three of these states. Biden won in 2020 because he won them all back for Democrats.
But… Biden’s policy agenda depends heavily on support for production of electric vehicles in the battle to limit climate change. The UAW has so far refused to endorse Biden’s reelection bid, in part, according to the union’s president, because Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has provided large financial incentives to car companies to make more electric vehicles without including guarantees for better worker pay and conditions.
That’s why this strike, and Biden’s role in it, are important 2024 election stories to watch.