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The big stories about money and politics in the race for the White House
Kamala Harris will declare that U.S. Steel should remain American-owned and managed during a visit to Pennsylvania on Monday, dealing the latest blow to Nippon Steel’s hopes of acquiring the company, according to an official in her campaign.
Harris’s expected comments on the proposed foreign takeover of U.S. Steel mirror President Joe Biden’s own opposition to the Nippon Steel deal. But they take on new significance because Harris, Biden’s vice president, is now the Democratic presidential nominee.
Harris will make her remarks in Pittsburgh, where she celebrates Labor Day and seeks union votes in two key industrial swing states. Before heading to Pennsylvania on Monday, Harris will stop in Michigan.
“The vice president is expected to say that U.S. Steel should remain locally owned and operated, while also emphasizing his commitment to always supporting American steelworkers,” a Harris campaign official said Monday.
Nippon Steel’s $15 billion acquisition of US Steel has faced a bipartisan backlash, as populist economics and protection of domestic production replace longstanding US consensus in favor of open investment.
Donald Trump, the former president and Republican candidate for the White House, has also vowed to block Nippon Steel’s bid to acquire US Steel.
The Japanese group hired Mike Pompeoformer Trump secretary of state to lobby for the deal and pledged to increase investment in U.S. Steel facilities if the transaction closes. But Harris’s statement will complicate that move.
Harris has won the support of most of the country’s major labor unions, which are powerful Democratic constituencies and help rally voters in battleground states.
Both the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers have endorsed Harris since she entered the race.
While union leaders have been vocal in their support of Harris and have repeatedly criticized Trump as a false champion of the working class, the vice president still faces a battle to win support from grassroots union members who have shifted to the Republican Party in recent years.
One exception to Harris’s support for organized labor is the Teamsters union, which represents 1.3 million members including truck drivers and construction workers. The union has so far declined to endorse a presidential candidate.
Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, spoke at the Republican convention in July, but said he would be willing to endorse Harris if she sat for an interview with him.
According to FT follow upHarris leads Trump nationally by 3.7 percentage points with just over two months to go until Election Day.
She has narrow leads in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania, enough to win the presidential election, while Trump has small advantages in other battleground states including North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia.
