Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's assertion that Republican Ohio Senator J.D. Vance has never supported a pro-worker bill has been refuted by a fact-checking exercise conducted by the Washington Post.
During a speech in Los Angeles, Walz criticized Vance, stating, "Hes one of four senators, four, that has never cast a vote on a pro-worker bill in his life. Not once."
In defense of this claim, the Harris-Walz campaign referred to a scorecard by the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the U.S. This scorecard evaluates lawmakers' voting records on bills and appointments deemed crucial for working people, as reported by the Washington Post. Vance, along with three other Republican senators, received a zero percent rating. However, all four were freshmen in the U.S. Senate at the time, and the scorecard only considered 2023, a year in which the AFL-CIO deemed only seven votes worth scoring, five of which were related to nominations for Biden administration appointments.
Walz's criticism overlooked the fact that Vance co-sponsored the 2023 Railway Safety Act. This legislation, introduced following the Norfolk Southern train derailment, aimed to implement new safety measures to safeguard rail workers. Despite stalling in the Democrat-controlled Senate, the bill enjoys broad union support. Furthermore, Walz failed to acknowledge that Vance crossed party lines to back the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act, which enhanced compensation for uranium miners. This bill was successfully passed by the Senate in March.
Earlier in his speech, Walz also contended that "the only thing those two guys [former President Donald Trump and Vance] know about working people is how to work to take advantage of them." This statement disregards Vance's upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, a Rust Belt city that has been hit hard by deindustrialization and the decline of its primary employer, Armco steel. The median household income in Middletown is approximately $25,000 below the national average. Vance's mother struggled with heroin addiction, leaving him to be raised by his pro-union Democrat grandparents, as detailed in his best-selling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy."
The Washington Post awarded Walz's statement "Four Pinocchios," the highest rating for falsity on the outlet's scale.
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