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LOS ANGELES (AP) — In his first solo appearance as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz warned cheering union members Tuesday that Donald Trump would wage war on working people and threaten Medicare and Social Security as he kicked off a five-state fundraising swing.
Speaking in a cavernous, dimly lit ballroom to thousands of members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — many dressed in green union T-shirts, and waving Harris-Walz placards — Walz said he and Vice President Kamala Harris want to spread collective bargaining and other worker protections to “every state in the union.”
The 1.4-million-member union has endorsed Harris.
"When unions are strong, America is strong," Walz, a former school teacher and union member, said.
He warned of a grim future for unions if Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance are elected, describing a nation where bargaining rights, overtime pay and other protections would be scuttled. He said Trump and Vance have “waged war on working people.”
“The only thing those two guys know about working people is how to work to take advantage of them,” Walz said.
However, Trump also has courted union support. When he accepted the Republican nomination, he said that he would rescue the auto industry from what he called “complete obliteration.”
The Democratic campaign chose to kick off Walz's national swing on the safest of political terrain — heavily Democratic California, home to Vice President Kamala Harris and where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans about 2-1. The last Republican to win a presidential contest in the state was in 1988, George H.W. Bush, and Republican nominees haven't bothered to seriously contest the state that delivers the largest trove of electoral votes since 2000.
Walz was scheduled to head to a fundraiser in Newport Beach later Tuesday. On Wednesday, he will address fundraisers in Denver and Boston, and then wrap up his trip on Thursday in Newport, Rhode Island, and Southampton, New York.
Walz’s focus on fundraising this week comes after he stormed through a series of battleground states with Harris last week to introduce himself to voters nationally. The two held rallies in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada.
The string of events will showcase Walz in a typical role for a vice presidential nominee, a combination fundraiser and partisan flamethrower.
Introducing himself to voters who probably know little — if anything — about the plainspoken, avuncular governor, Walz echoed remarks he delivered in earlier appearances in Nevada and Arizona following Harris’ announcement that he would join her on the ticket.
Those speeches were built around key themes for Democrats in 2024: support for abortion rights, lifting the middle class and characterizing Trump as “weird” — an attack line Walz has been credited with authoring.
Appearing in front of a union convention, he laced the speech with tributes to working Americans, saying at one point that he's the first union member to appear on a presidential ticket since Republican Ronald Reagan. But unlike the former Democrat Reagan, he promised, “I won't lose my way.”
Walz apparently was unaware Trump also was a member of the Screen Actors Guild before resigning in 2021. But during a discussion about government spending, Trump on Monday praised Tesla CEO Elon Musk for firing workers who went on strike, telling him, “You’re the greatest cutter.”
Walz also defended his military record, which has come under criticism from Republicans. "I am damn proud of my service to this country,” he said, and credited Vance for his time in the military.
Though appearing in California, Walz avoided any mention of the state’s long-running problems, which include a homeless crisis, some of the nation’s steepest taxes and lofty housing prices that have been blamed for sending residents to other states looking for more affordable living.
In a statement, California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said residents “are all too familiar with the ramifications of far-left policies championed by Harris.”
Walz closed by urging union members to make phone calls and knock on doors on behalf of the Democratic ticket, spotlighting the importance organized labor can have on the expected close contest.
Union member Joseph Moore, a Republican from Salem, Oregon, said the speech left him encouraged that Harris and Waltz could stop Trump, whom he blamed for dismantling the Republican Party he once knew while leaving the nation and Congress bitterly divided.
With Harris and Walz on the ballot, he said: “It's the first time that I felt hope we can keep Trump out of office.”