Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance says Kamala Harris’s criticism of Donald Trump’s vision on trade and her reluctance to take a more rigid stand on immigration proves she is not serious about standing up for labor unions and their rank-and-file members.
Mr. Trump has almost singlehandedly realigned the Republican Party with blue-collar voters across the country. Looking to expand that support, Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance are making the case they are better equipped to fight for labor unions, their members, and wages by imposing stiff tariffs on imports and stemming the flow of illegal immigrants entering the country.
“Tariffs are the best tool that we have to fight back against the Chinese and other countries using slave labor to undercut the wages of American workers,” Mr. Vance said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.
For years, Democrats favored tariffs, and Republicans shunned them. But that political dynamic was upended when Mr. Trump crashed onto the scene in 2016.
Mr. Trump is now pledging to slash the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%, but solely for companies that make their products in the U.S., arguing that it will lure businesses back to the country.
He also is considering up to 20% tariffs as retaliation for what he sees as unfair practices by America’s trading partners and a universal 10% tariff on imports.
Critics, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Ms. Harris, free traders and fiscal hawks, warn that those tariffs could be passed on to American consumers.
Proponents of tariffs say the levy can generate revenue for the government, protect domestic industries and serve as a foreign policy tool.
Mr. Vance said the Biden-Harris administration’s unwillingness to embrace more tariffs hurt the American workers who Democrats say they are fighting for and allow companies to shift their production to Mexico, China and other foreign nations.
“We’ve seen an explosion of American workers suffering the indignity, not just from losing their jobs but also from having to train their replacements because Kamala Harris refuses to do what she needs to do to protect American workers,” he said.
At the same time, Mr. Vance tempered his message by passing on the chance to take a firm stand on state right-to-work laws prohibiting unions from forcing members to pay dues. Union advocates say these laws have weakened workers and their unions.
“We’re going to let those states make the decision,” Mr. Vace said. “I think what we see our job and national policy is to protect workers jobs as possible, to promote tax and spending and tariff policies that promote large scale economic growth and actually give workers more their take-home pay and more jobs, to begin with, and of course, a border policy that doesn’t allow illegal labor to undercut the wages of American workers.”
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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