Live updates: Vice President Kamala Harris visits Durham Tech on trip to NC
Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Durham Technical Community College on Wednesday to promote the Biden administration’s goals for jobs and workers.
Harris is joined in Durham by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh as they discuss the administration’s work to “create good-paying, union jobs,” the White House said. Gov. Roy Cooper is also speaking at the event.
The News & Observer is publishing live updates from Harris’s trip. Check back here for more information throughout the day.
And check out our other coverage:
In Durham, VP Kamala Harris heralds union jobs as future of US economic recovery
Harris to advocate for ‘good-paying, union jobs’ in anti-union North Carolina
VP motorcade will likely stop traffic between RDU and Durham on Wednesday
How to watch VP Kamala Harris’ remarks during today’s visit to Durham
VP stops at school en route to RDU
Updated 3:45 p.m.: After concluding her remarks, Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a round-table discussion that was closed to the public prior to departing for Raleigh-Durham International Airport, just before 2:30 p.m., according to a White House pool report from a reporter traveling with the vice president.
While on the way to the airport, Harris’s motorcade stopped at R.N. Harris Elementary School once more (the vice president stopped at the school while heading to Durham Tech, too). Students were lined up along a fence, and were hopping and cheering for Harris.
The vice president walked up to the kids to talk with them, shake hands, and “dole out pep talks at eye level for about ten minutes,” the pool report stated.
— Avi Bajpai, abajpai@newsobserver.com
Harris: Americans have shown resilience
Updated 11:40 a.m.: The United States has made a strong economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but there’s still a lot of work left to do, Vice President Kamala Harris said after taking the stage at Durham Technical Community College.
Americans are understandably tired and frustrated by the disruptions and losses brought on by the pandemic, Harris said, but she and President Joe Biden are inspired by the determination of people to return to work, school, and a sense of normalcy.
“As I travel our nation, I will tell you, what I see most clearly, is neither the fear nor the fatigue, but resilience,” Harris said. “The resilience of the American people, and the determination of the American people to always build a better future.”
Harris said the administration’s recently enacted bipartisan infrastructure bill is delivering “historic investments” in infrastructure and supply chains to prevent bottlenecks and cut costs for businesses as well as consumers.
The U.S. must continue its economic recovery, Harris said, and that means creating more “good paying jobs here at home — good union jobs.”
Union workers across the country are building the future through new technologies, Harris said.
That includes building solar panels and wind turbines that will cut energy costs and combat climate change, replacing lead pipes that have contaminated drinking water, and installing fiber optic cables that will deliver high-speed internet to households throughout the country, she said.
— Avi Bajpai, abajpai@newsobserver.com
Walsh announces funding for community colleges
Updated 11:20 a.m.: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh began his remarks thanking Gov. Cooper, Mayor O’Neal and Reps. Price and Butterfield for welcoming him to North Carolina and their support on the administration’s infrastructure bill and other economic efforts.
A former mayor of Boston, Walsh spoke to O’Neal directly at the beginning of his speech, saying he understood the unique challenges and responsibilities that come with the job of leading a city.
Walsh called Harris a champion for working people. He said he first met Harris while she was a U.S. senator, and said he’s enjoyed a great, productive relationship with her since then. He also called Harris a great role model for young girls across the country.
A federal task force on worker empowerment being led by Harris and Walsh, commissioned by President Joe Biden last year, is a “historic opportunity,” Walsh said.
“It’s amazing to work for a president and vice president who are the most pro-worker administration in the history of our country,” Walsh said.
In Biden’s first year in office, unemployment dropped by the most percentage points since World War II, Walsh said, and the economy has seen more than 6.6 million new jobs. That came as the country recovered from major job losses in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.
Walsh also announced $45 million in new spending by the U.S. Labor Department for grant programs to strengthen community colleges.
The grants will connect people to training and good-paying jobs, Walsh said. The program will focus on women and people of color, he added, and it’ll bring more working people into the middle class.
— Avi Bajpai, abajpai@newsobserver.com
Cooper: Strong economic recovery in NC
Updated 11:15 a.m.: Gov. Roy Cooper called Harris his “friend,” and started his speech talking about support for Ukraine.
Cooper said North Carolina has made a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but the state continues to focus on creating jobs and providing resources to students to complete their education.
“We make big investments in education, from cradle to career,” Cooper said.
He ended his remarks with, “Finally, something simple: Pay people more.”
“If you give people a shot, they can soar,” Cooper said. “And in North Carolina we are ready to fly higher than ever.”
— Avi Bajpai, abajpai@newsobserver.com, and Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, dvaughan@newsobserver.com
O’Neal welcomes Harris to Durham
Updated 11:10 a.m.: Mayor Elaine O’Neal welcomed Harris and other dignitaries to Durham, “also known as the Bull City,” she said, making the “bull” sign with her hands.
A former judge, O’Neal is the city’s first Black woman mayor.
In her remarks, O’Neal boasted about recent investments that Durham has attracted to the Triangle and Research Triangle Park.
— Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, dvaughan@newsobserver.com
Harris tours apprenticeship program
Updated 11 a.m.: North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal greeted Harris on the tarmac at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, according to a White House pool report.
The trip to Durham Tech Community College lasted about 20 minutes. Toward the end of the trip, Harris’s motorcade passed R.N. Harris Elementary School, where kids lined up along a fence and cheered the vice president, holding up hand-drawn signs and portraits of her, the pool report said.
Prior to her remarks, Harris toured the IBEW local 553 apprentice program at Durham Tech along with Labor Secretary Walsh, Cooper, and other officials.
— Avi Bajpai, abajpai@newsobserver.com
Local officials attending VP’s speech
Updated 10:25 a.m.: Local officials have started assembling in the room at Durham Technical Community College where Harris will be speaking.
Among those in the room are former state Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., who represented Durham in the North Carolina Senate for 13 years, the Rev. William Barber II, co-founder of the national Poor People’s Campaign, and Brenda Howerton, chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners.
Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal is also attending the speech.
— Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, dvaughan@newsobserver.com
Harris arrives at RDU airport
Updated 10 a.m.: Air Force Two, the vice president’s plane, touched down at Raleigh-Durham International Airport just after 9:30 a.m. “following an uneventful flight” from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, according to a White House pool report.
In addition to Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, U.S. Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina accompanied Harris on the flight.
— Avi Bajpai, abajpai@newsobserver.com
Democrats tout fastest growth in decades
Updated 9:45 a.m.: Bobbie Richardson, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, touted in a statement what she said had been the “fastest economic growth since 1984 and the most jobs created in one year ever,” under the Biden administration.
The economic boom is materializing at the state level, Richardson said, as seen by major recent investments announced by Toyota, which said in December it would build a multibillion-dollar battery plant in Randolph County, and Boom Supersonic, which said last month it will build a $500 million factory near Greensboro to produce supersonic passenger jets.
“While there’s more work to do — to keep wages up and prices down — so that working families in North Carolina can get ahead, the Biden-Harris administration is leading our state and our country to recovery,” Richardson said.
— Avi Bajpai, abajpai@newsobserver.com
VP visit is ‘political theater,’ GOP says
Updated 9:30 a.m.: Ahead of her arrival in Durham, Republicans said Harris’s visit was a distraction from the real issue facing North Carolina workers: inflation.
“Kamala Harris and Marty Walsh’s visit to North Carolina today is one more example of the Biden administration trying to use political theater to distract from the sky-high inflation affecting North Carolina workers,” Alex Nolley, a North Carolina spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said in a written statement. “Despite what Harris and Walsh want us to believe, the reason real-wages are down for workers is due to Bidenflation, not the drop in union membership.”
— Avi Bajpai, abajpai@newsobserver.com
Harris to discuss jobs and workers agenda
Updated 9 a.m.: Harris is expected to arrive at Raleigh-Durham International Airport sometime between 9:30 and 10:15 a.m. She’s scheduled to tour an apprentice program at the college off East Lawson and South Briggs streets at 10:25 a.m. and then speak at 11 a.m.
Harris is not scheduled to leave Durham to return to RDU until 3:20 p.m., which leaves her plenty of time to go somewhere else in town for lunch or another stop. The White House did not say what comes after her talk at Durham Tech.
The vice president’s visit is part of a travel blitz by administration officials following President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. Biden touched briefly on community colleges, jobs and wages, and advocating for a $15 minimum wage.
“Lower your costs, not your wages. Make more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America. More goods moving faster and cheaper in America. More jobs where you can earn a good living in America. And, instead of relying on foreign supply chains — let’s make it in America,” Biden said.
Harris visited North Carolina nearly a year ago with a similar pitch: “good jobs.” During that April 2021 visit to Greensboro and High Point, it was to promote proposed legislation on infrastructure known at that time as the American Jobs Plan.
North Carolina has long had the second lowest union membership rate in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, after South Carolina, though it has seen some increase in private sector unionization during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state’s ban on collective bargaining for public sector workers has been in place for more than half a century. The average national union membership rate is 10.3%. North Carolina’s rate is 2.6%.
“I believe every worker in America deserves the ability to join and organize a union,” Harris said at Guilford Technical Community College during her 2021 visit.
The apprentice program at Durham Tech is sponsored by IBEW Local 553, an electrical workers union local founded in 1934.
Harris has been to North Carolina several times, both as a candidate and vice president. In the Triangle, she has previously visited Shaw University in Raleigh and St. Joseph’s AME Church in Durham.
More and more companies are opening up new locations in North Carolina, with Apple expected to bring 3,000 jobs when it opens its Research Triangle Park campus in the next few years.
— Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, dvaughan@newsobserver.com, and Richard Stradling, rstradling@newsobserver.com
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
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