Chicago – US Senator Gary Peters touted the Harris-Walz ticket as the key to strengthening the middle class and underscored the role of unions in achieving that goal in a speech at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.
The Bloomfield Township Democrat stood on stage for about five minutes and talked about growing up in a union household with his father, a teacher, and his mother, who worked as a nursing assistant.
Peters touted Harris’ success in negotiating Medicare and lowering drug costs, as well as her achievements in manufacturing, as evidence of her fight for the middle class.
“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz grew up just like I did,” Peters said. “And I know they will fight for us. They will make it easier to raise our families and retire with dignity.”
Peters warned that a victory in November by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, would lead to policies that cut overtime and health insurance benefits and give “tax breaks to billionaires.”
“If they win, workers like my friends here in the Teamsters will pay the price,” Peters said before introducing several retired Teamsters who joined him on stage.
Peters’ remarks come after Sean O’Brien, chairman of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, delivered a fiery 18-minute speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month. O’Brien touted unions and criticized “corporate elites” in a speech that reflected the crucial battle for union votes this fall.
During the first two nights of the DNC, Democrats brought several union leaders to the stage, including United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, who on Monday sharply denounced corporate greed and called Trump a “strikebreaker.”
Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) also spoke on the main stage on Monday, warning delegates at the United Center of an unprecedented expansion of executive powers if Trump wins the presidency and implements key parts of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Trump has distanced himself from the conservative political approach of some of his former allies.
Additional speakers from Michigan, including Governor Gretchen Whitmer, are expected to speak at the convention later this week.
Peters is serving his second term in the U.S. Senate. He served two terms in the Michigan Senate and worked as Michigan Lottery Commissioner under former Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm.
Peters is chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
