Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where we are preparing for a visit from Bill Clinton tomorrow in rural Westmoreland County.
Trump Has No Field Office in Key Western PA Republican County
Westmoreland County, with over 350,000 residents, voted for Trump by a margin of 63% to 35% in 2020. Despite being a key county for Trump to turn out votes, he has no field office there.
However, the Harris-Walz campaign does have a field office in Westmoreland County and are focusing heavily on mobilizing union voters in the county.
Part of the reason that Trump has no field game in Westmoreland County is that he has largely outsourced his field campaign to Elon Musk’s Super PAC, America.
The PAC is relying largely on hiring paid canvassers going door-to-door as opposed to the Harris-Walz campaign that largely relies on volunteers. An analysis of internal campaign documents by The Guardian shows that door knockers hired by America PAC have lied about making contacts up to 25% of the time.
For more, check out The Guardian.
With 500,000 Puerto Ricans in PA, Trump Rally Comments Could Boost Dems
At a racist rally at Madison Square Garden yesterday, one of Trump’s top surrogates, Tony Hinchcliffe, joked that Puerto Rico was a “floating island of garbage”. The comments went so viral that Google search results for Tony Hinchcliffe exceeded Google search results for Taylor Swift.
The comments resonated particularly in Pennsylvania, where nearly 500,000 Puerto Ricans live. From POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook:
“For months, VICTOR MARTINEZ has been working to make the case for KAMALA HARRIS to Latinos on his Spanish-language radio show in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, acutely aware that DONALD TRUMP seemed to be making real inroads. But the calls he received on Monday suggested that there might be an 11th-hour shift in this swing region of the most important Electoral College battleground.
The stream of racist invective from Trump’s MAGA rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday broke through, especially with voters from Puerto Rico, which one warm-up speaker described as “a floating island of garbage.”
On Monday morning, Martinez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was flooded with calls, including one from an undecided voter who’d been lukewarm about both presidential candidates until finding out about Sunday’s Trump rally: “They said, ‘I’m voting for Kamala Harris.’” That call, he said, was representative of the broader response.
“For Puerto Ricans, this is our October surprise,” Martinez told West Wing Playbook. “This is a gift with a bow from the Trump campaign. This is what we needed to energize the Puerto Rican community, remind the Puerto Rican community of who he is.””
For more, check out POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook.
Top Harris Surrogate Mark Cuban Attacks BIden Anti-Trust Message
All over TV, billionaire Dallas Mavericks co-owner Mark Cuban has become one of Kamala Harris’ top surrogates, appearing regularly at her campaign rallies.
However, in interviews, Cuban has repeatedly attacked antitrust policies of the Biden-Harris Administration and gone after their attempts to crack down on cryptocurrency. From Sludge:
“More recently, he’s come out against the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who has made tackling Big Tech company abuses through antitrust law enforcement a top focus of her tenure. When he was asked earlier this month by Semafor whether Harris should keep Khan at the helm of the FTC if she is elected, Cuban replied, “If it were me, I wouldn’t.”
"By trying to break up the biggest tech companies, you risk our ability to be the best in artificial intelligence," said Cuban.
In calling for Khan to be replaced, Cuban has echoed his fellow tech billionaire and Harris backer Reid Hoffman, who has argued that Khan is “waging war on American business.” Like Cuban, Hoffman invests in tech startups through his position as a partner with venture firm Greylock Partners.
While this position might help Cuban and Hoffman win more support for Harris among tech industry billionaires, it’s not likely to help with voters at large. The Tech Oversight Project recently conducted a poll of Democrats and found strong support for Khan and for antitrust actions against the tech industry. While the Tech Oversight Project is far from neutral on the topic—its primary cause is strengthening antitrust laws through legislation aimed at Big Tech— the results of its poll were overwhelming. The poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, found that 80% of Democrats want the government to be doing more to take on corporate monopoly power.”
Harry Crosby’s Son Appears in VoteVets Ad
Finally, earlier this year, Payday Report profiled the anti-war activism of “Masters of the Air” star Harry Crosby. (See our story here)
Now, his son Jeff Crosby, a longtime labor leader, is appearing in a VoteVets ad about how his dad would have opposed Trump.
News & Links Elsewhere
- Boeing plans $19 billion share sale to prevent credit downgrade as strike grinds on
- UAW holds rallies for strike authorization vote at Stellantis
- 2,400 Kaiser mental health therapists continue their strike in California
- Workers unionize at Hilton Columbus Downtown, the state's largest hotel
- 2,000 Pitt graduate employees to vote on unionizing next month
- Miami-Dade teachers vote to keep their union. This right-wing group vows to bust it.
- Finally, Palestinian trade unions & professional syndicates call for escalating BDS pressure to end complicity with Israel’s #GazaGenocide & apartheid
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, comments and complaints to melk@paydayreport.com
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Love & Solidarity,
Melk
