\u201cI\u2019ll tell you, his running mate, I don\u2019t know if that was a value-add to this campaign or not, but he\u2019s one of four senators, four, that has never cast a vote on a pro-worker bill in his life. Not once. A stopped clock\u2019s right twice a day, this guy can\u2019t get it right once, not once, for workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz, in a speech in Los Angeles to a conference of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Aug. 13<\/p>\n
Walz, the Minnesota governor, used an address to the largest public employee union to make a slashing attack on Donald Trump\u2019s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. He declared that Vance \u201cnever cast a vote on a pro-worker bill in his life. Not once,\u201d earning boos from the audience. For good measure, he added: \u201cThe only thing those two guys know about working people is how to work to take advantage of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is there evidence to back up these statements?<\/p>\n
We were struck that Walz said that Vance was one of four senators who had never cast a vote for a pro-worker bill. That was rather specific and sounded as if he was borrowing from a legislative scorecard compiled by an organization or interest group.<\/p>\n
When asked about Walz\u2019s comment, the Harris-Walz campaign pointed to an AFL-CIO scorecard, which lists four senators \u2014 all Republicans \u2014 who have \u201clifetime records\u201d of zero percent for voting on bills or appointments deemed important by the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the rub: all four senators \u2014 Vance, Katie Boyd Britt of Alabama, Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska \u2014 are freshmen. So the scorecard covers only one year \u2014 2023 \u2014 and only seven votes were counted. Five of those votes concerned nominations for Biden administration appointments, such as former Maryland governor Martin O\u2019Malley to be Social Security commissioner. The only votes on policy issues \u2014 bills \u2014 concerned a resolution to block Biden\u2019s student-loan relief program and an amendment to promote access to voting.<\/p>\n
Vance voted \u201cno\u201d in five cases and did not cast a vote in two others. The AFL-CIO, on its website, does not display a scorecard for 2024 votes and did not respond to a request for a scorecard on Vance\u2019s record this year.<\/p>\n
For context, the average Senate Republican has a score of 3 percent.<\/p>\n
In other words, this is thin gruel. Walz attacks Vance for not supporting any pro-worker bills, but the claim is based on just two votes in a single year. One might question whether student-loan relief and voting access are \u201cpro-worker\u201d issues, but this is the AFL-CIO\u2019s scorecard. They characterize it as \u201cthe definitive grade of whether your representative voted to protect or take away your rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walz framed it as Vance never casting a vote for any pro-worker bill, not just bills important to the AFL-CIO. Unusually for a Republican, Vance joined a picket line during the auto strike organized by the United Auto Workers and said he is \u201cnot a big fan\u201d of right-to-work laws that curtail unions\u2019 ability to organize. But he has opposed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a major labor priority that would weaken such state laws.<\/p>\n
Still, we identified at least two pro-worker bills that Vance voted for, which by Walz\u2019s definition would at least be a stopped clock.<\/p>\n
Railway Safety Act. Vance is a co-sponsor of the bill, intended to respond to the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and he voted for it in December when it was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee. The bill, which would impose new safety requirements and enhance fines, has not yet come to a floor vote yet because of a filibuster threat. Rail unions have held rallies calling for it to be passed, and it has won the support of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers\u2019 Transportation Division, the Transport Workers Union of America, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the American Train Dispatchers Association, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgeres and Helpers, the United States Conference of Mayors, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the International Association of Machinists.<\/span> As for Walz\u2019s jab that \u201cthe only thing those two guys know about working people is how to work to take advantage of them,\u201d he seems to be unfairly lumping Vance in with Trump, who was born into wealth in New York City. Vance\u2019s best-selling memoir, \u201cHillbilly Elegy,\u201d recounted being raised by his grandmother and grandfather, whom he described as union Democrats: \u201cAll politicians might be crooks, but if there were any exceptions, they were undoubtedly members of Franklin Delano Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal coalition.\u201d His grandfather worked at Armco steel mill and was a member of the local union, the Armco Employees Independent Federation. Vance\u2019s uncle Jimmy was a member of the same union.<\/p>\n In other words, it\u2019s rich to claim that Vance doesn\u2019t know anything about working people. Walz knows this. In his first campaign rally with Harris, Walz said Vance \u201cwrote a bestseller trashing that community.\u201d That\u2019s a matter of opinion, but it shows that Walz is aware of Vance\u2019s working-class roots.<\/p>\n The Harris-Walz campaign declined to comment.<\/p>\n Speaking to a union audience, Walz swung too hard for the fences. He claimed that Vance has not voted for any \u201cpro-worker bills,\u201d and his source was a union report card that covered only two bills in one year. As we have documented, Vance has voted for at least two bills that helped workers and had union support. On top of that, claiming that Vance knows nothing about working people, when that\u2019s the subject of his book, is also false.<\/p>\n Walz earns Four Pinocchios.<\/p>\n (About our rating scale)<\/p>\n Send us facts to check by filling out this form<\/p>\n Sign up for The Fact Checker weekly newsletter<\/p>\n The Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll tell you, his running mate, I don\u2019t know if that was a value-add to this campaign or not, but he\u2019s one of four senators, four, that has never cast a vote on a pro-worker bill in his life. Not once. A stopped clock\u2019s right twice a day, this guy can\u2019t get it right once, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRadiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act. Vance was one of 20 Republicans to vote for this bill, which passed the Senate in March by a vote of 69-30. The bill, which had the support of uranium miners, would have extended the period for filing claims under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, improved compensation for workers involved in uranium mining, and added parts of Arizona, Utah and Nevada to the program. The House did not act, though, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) citing the expense and lack of Republican support. The old law lapsed in June, though Democrats promise to revive it next year.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Pinocchio Test<\/h3>\n
Four Pinocchios<\/h3>\n