The AFT's delegates are all-in for Kamala Harris, from seniors waiting patiently to enter the convention center in Houston to parents carrying children on their shoulders-and even a newborn in a bassinet. As one delegate said, "It's a whole new energy."

The AFT was the first union to endorse Vice President Harris, and Harris chose the AFT for her first major union event following her emergence as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Introducing Harris, AFT President Randi Weingarten said that "Kamala Harris has led the fight for our freedoms to make our own decisions about our own bodies, to live safe from gun violence [and] … to join a union." She also rallied the lively delegates to "shatter every record for voter turnout."

Harris had to wait for the cheering to subside before opening with a thank you, first to President Joe Biden, then to AFT members. She praised the president as a true leader: "Over the past three and a half years, and over his entire career, Joe has led with grace and strength." She added, "You … have taken on the most noble of work."

Calling the members of the AFT visionaries who are focused on the future, she urged us to mobilize. "We need you so desperately right now." Harris contrasted the Democratic vision with that of former President Donald Trump's. "In our vision of the future, we see a place where every person has the opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead, a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every senior can retire with dignity and where every worker has the freedom to join a union. We see a future with affordable healthcare, affordable childcare and paid leave, not for some, but for all."

Harris to Trump: 'Bring it on'

"We are clear-eyed," Harris said. "As we work to build a brighter future and to move our nation forward, there are those who are really trying to take us backward, … to return America to a dark past." She described Donald Trump's agenda, written out in Project 2025: failed trickle-down economic policies, union-busting, tax breaks for billionaires, cuts to Medicare and Social Security, an end to student loan forgiveness and ending Head Start.

Harris said, "We are not going back. … And one of the best ways to keep our nation moving forward is to give workers a voice, to protect the freedom to organize, to defend the freedom to collectively bargain, to end union-busting."

Harris urged members to fight the good fight in the crucial weeks until November and beyond. "In this moment, across our nation, we witness a full-on attack on hard-won, hard-fought freedoms. While you teach students about democracy, … extremists attack the sacred freedom to vote. ... They have the nerve to tell teachers to strap on a gun in the classroom while they refuse to pass commonsense gun safety laws. And while you teach students about our nation's past, these extremists attack the freedom to learn and acknowledge our nation's true and full history. … Just think about it. … We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books."

She brought the crowd to its feet with a challenge: "In this moment, we are in a fight for our most fundamental freedoms, and to this room of leaders, I say, bring it on."

She ended, "We each in our country face a question. … What kind of country do we want to live in: a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate? The beauty of our democracy is that we each have the power to answer that question-when we vote."

[Chris Bartolomeo/close up Photo Credit: Suzannah Hoover, Group Photo Credit: Pamela Wolfe.]

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