Auto & Tech Leaders Line Up To Support Harris For President – CleanTechnica

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On Wednesday, July 31, the UAW International Executive Board voted to endorse Kamala Harris for President of the United States. A press release describes her “proven track record of standing with the UAW and delivering major gains for the working class.” That support means Harris has one of the nation’s most influential unions behind her.

On the same day, more than 100 venture capitalists said that they had pledged to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November and had solicited donations for her presidential campaign. The announcement is a move toward greater solidarity in the tech field, whose leaders have disagreed over whom to support in the pivotal US Presidential election.

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Autoworkers Union Supports Harris for President

Years before the Stand Up Strike walkouts, in which a carefully coordinated United Autoworker campaign targeted the most profitable factories at GM, Ford, and Stellantis simultaneously, Kamala Harris had walked the picket line with striking autoworkers. That was in 2019 during a strike against General Motors when she served in the Senate. As vice president, she led a task force examining the ways that the government could help expand union membership.

UAW says she has taken on “corporate price-gouging and profiteering and has spoken out and voted against unfair trade deals that hurt the American worker like NAFTA and NAFTA 2.0, the USMCA.” Next week, the Harris for President campaign will rally in Detroit with UAW members, Michigan voters, and thousands of working class people who the union says, “are fighting for a better future.” Vice President Harris will also meet directly with UAW members and leaders to hear about the issues that matter to Michigan workers.

“Our job in this election is to defeat Donald Trump and elect Kamala Harris to build on her proven track record of delivering for the working class,” said UAW President Shawn Fain.

“We stand at a crossroads in this country. We can put a billionaire back in office who stands against everything our union stands for, or we can elect Kamala Harris who will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in our war on corporate greed. This campaign is bringing together people from all walks of life, building a movement that can defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box. For our one million active and retired members, the choice is clear: We will elect Kamala Harris to be our next President this November.”

The union’s largest presences are in key battleground states like Michigan and Wisconsin. The UAW has a particularly strong membership in Michigan, where the Arab American presence and pro-Palestinian sentiment is respected as a key issue. President Joe Biden’s lead in Michigan had seemed tenuous and concerned his Democratic campaigners. The ennui over Biden’s presidential re-election bid was compounded by tens of thousands of graduate students and other academic workers who are also represented by the UAW and who oppose the war in Gaza.

UAW formally called for a cease-fire in Gaza in December.

The union had endorsed Biden in January but also pushed him to review his policies toward Israel during the war in Gaza. In July, it joined a coalition of several unions that sent a letter to Biden, requesting that he “immediately halt all military aid to Israel as part of the work to secure an immediate and permanent cease-fire in the war in Gaza.”

Harris had publicly aligned herself to the Biden administration’s policies on Gaza. Yet she has also been vocal about the severity of the humanitarian crisis there, reflecting after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the US Congress that she would “not be silent.”

Sources told the New York Times that, prior to the UAW endorsement of Harris for President, the union wanted “indications” that Harris recognized the severity of two key union issues: investing in US manufacturing jobs and connecting US aid to Israel with a conclusion to the war in Gaza. The UAW was reportedly encouraged by their conversation with Harris.

“Vice President Harris is honored to receive the endorsement of the United Auto Workers and knows it comes with the responsibility to fight for unions and working families as she’s done her whole career,” said Harris’ campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez.

Tech Venture Capitalists Throw Their Support To Harris

A substantial group of venture capitalists have also endorsed Harris for President. The list includes Reid Hoffman, a founder of LinkedIn; Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures; Mark Cuban, the former principal owner of the Dallas Mavericks; Ron Conway, a well-known angel investor; and the billionaire Chris Sacca. The VCs state that they constantly seek out, invest in, and support “entrepreneurs who are building the future. We are pro-business, pro-American dream, pro-entrepreneurship, and pro-technological progress.”

The group’s website, VCS for Kamala, described an important element of their collective worldview as a “belief in democracy as the backbone of our nation.” Because they see the connectedness among “strong, trustworthy institutions,” their industry, and other industries, they deduce that the tech sector “would collapse without them.” They see a commitment to democracy “at stake in this election.”

This group of venture capitalists wants to come to solutions to problems…

“through constructive dialogue with political leaders and institutions willing to talk to us. As technology leaders and innovators, we value the pivotal role that having visionary and principled leadership in the Oval Office plays in driving our nation’s progress and strengthening our global influence.”

The website asks people to sign a pledge to support Harris for President and to donate to her campaign.

Another industry group, Tech For Kamala, has reached out to its followers and offered “enthusiastic and unwavering support for Vice President Harris.” The Harris campaign has sought to organize Silicon Valley leaders more, and Harris, who hails from the San Francisco Bay area, is planning a fund raising jaunt there in September.

Julia Collins, the founder of the climate tech start-up Planet FWD who organized a Tech For Kamala letter, said the group was working with other tech groups and hoped to do “one of those iconic Zoom calls” to get people involved. She was referring to the series of organizing calls that supporters have held for Harris. “What we’re building is a grass-roots movement that includes all people in tech, not just the luminaries, not just the billionaires.”

Collins’ comments are lightly veiled rejoinders to right-wing venture capitalists and executives like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and investors Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, and David Sacks, who have endorsed former President Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee. In fact, Musk created a pro-Trump super PAC, and Sacks spoke at the Republican National Convention.