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🇺🇸 United States /Elections & Politics

Midterm campaigns enter final stretch as candidates court Labor Day voters

From PBS NewsHour · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency Ongoing story
  • Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson urged union members to vote as he seeks to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
  • Candidates held events at union halls, festivals and parades while campaigns intensified ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
  • President Donald Trump planned a Republican midterm convention in Dallas as his party seeks to retain control of Congress.

Troy Jackson returned to the union hall where he once worked alongside labor activists and loggers, now asking them to help send him to the U.S. Senate.

Jackson, the Democratic nominee in Maine, told several hundred union members at a Southern Maine Labor Council event in Portland that Labor Day was more than a holiday. He said voters should support higher minimum wages, expanded family medical leave and one another. Jackson became the nominee at a special convention in July and is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a race Democrats see as important to taking control of the Senate.

Labor Day has never been just another holiday.

· Troy JacksonHe addressed union members while urging them to support his Senate campaign.

He was one of many candidates in key November contests who spent the holiday weekend at festivals, union halls and parades. The campaigns have already been combative, busy and expensive, and activity is expected to increase as more voters focus on the Nov. 3 general election. North Carolina mailed its first statewide ballots on Friday.

Today, here with the people I’ve fought alongside for years, I want to make a pledge about exactly what I’m going to do in the United States Senate.

· Troy JacksonHe outlined his appeal to workers at a Labor Day event in Portland.

Doug Born, a 64-year-old union stagehand from Westbrook, said Jackson’s background made him appealing. “I think he’d be the most working-class guy in the Senate. That appeals to me,” Born said. “We need more union members in seats of power.”

Collins had no Labor Day events scheduled, but visited Bath Iron Works on Sept. 1. A spokesperson said she would continue “leveraging her seniority to secure billions in destroyer contracts, infrastructure modernization, and wage enhancements.”

I think he’d be the most working-class guy in the Senate. That appeals to me.

· Doug BornThe union stagehand explained his support for Jackson.

President Donald Trump also planned to campaign for Republicans, including at an unusual two-day midterm convention in Dallas. Republicans currently control the White House and Congress, but the party in power typically loses congressional seats during midterm elections. Trump said he planned to spend the 30 days before Nov. 3 campaigning in House and Senate battlegrounds.

We need more union members in seats of power.

· Doug BornHe argued that organized labor should have greater representation in government.
About this summary

Originally published by PBS NewsHour in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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