Vice President Kamala Harris headed to Augusta, Georgia, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, to view the damage from Hurricane Helene. In this photo, the streets are flooded near Peachtree Creek after the storm brought in heavy rains overnight on Sept. 27, 2024 in Atlanta. (Megan Varner | Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — After the vice presidential debate, voters in one flash poll published Wednesday declared a draw in the meeting between Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance.

Tuesday’s debate is the last scheduled in-person meeting between the presidential campaigns. Both Midwestern candidates were cordial and the debate was devoid of any major clashes. The two men even came to a general agreement on some policy issues, like providing families with support for child care and curbing the threat of gun violence.

Voters were split 50-50 on which candidate performed better, according to a flash poll by POLITICO/Focaldata of likely voters that was conducted after the CBS-sponsored event in New York City.

The mostly friendly exchange had some breakout moments, such as Walz pressing Vance on whether former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, which Vance didn’t answer.

“I’m pretty shocked by this,” Walz said during the debate. “He lost the election. This is not a debate.”

The next major televised interview with a presidential candidate will be Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, on the CBS news program “60 Minutes.”

“For over half a century, 60 Minutes has invited the Democratic and Republican tickets to appear on our broadcast as Americans head to the polls,” the show posted on social media. “This year, both the Harris and Trump campaigns agreed to sit down with 60 Minutes.”

However, after initially accepting, Trump “has decided not to participate,” the post continued.

The interview will air Monday night at 8 Eastern, but only with Harris.

“Our original invitation to former President Donald Trump to be interviewed on 60 Minutes stands,” according to the post.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote on social media that while there were initial discussions for an interview, “nothing was ever scheduled or locked in.”

He also took issue with live fact-checking.

Harris travels to Georgia

Harris on Wednesday headed to Augusta, Georgia, alongside Sen. Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia, to survey the damage from Hurricane Helene, a Category 4 storm that hit Southeastern states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. At least 600 people are unaccounted for.

Harris gave an update late Wednesday about ongoing federal efforts in the recovery.

“I’ve been reading and hearing about the work you’ve been doing over the last few days, and I think it really does represent some of the best of what we each know can be done, especially when we coordinate around local, state, federal resources to meet the needs of people who must be seen, who must be heard,” she said during her visit to the Augusta Emergency Operations Center, according to White House pool reports.

Harris is also planning to make a trip to North Carolina in the coming days. The hurricane severely hit western North Carolina.

President Joe Biden was scheduled to visit North Carolina Wednesday and survey the damage in Asheville via a helicopter to avoid disturbing recovery efforts on the ground.

Trump on Monday visited a damaged furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, where he delivered remarks.

“We’re here today to stand in complete solidarity with the people of Georgia, with all of those suffering in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” Trump said.

Longshoremen’s strike

Harris issued a statement Wednesday in support of a strike of unionized dockworkers, part of the International Longshoremen’s Association, which has 85,000 members.

“This strike is about fairness,” she said. “Foreign-owned shipping companies have made record profits and executive compensation has grown. The Longshoremen, who play a vital role transporting essential goods across America, deserve a fair share of these record profits.”

They are striking for higher wages, more health care benefits and a ban on automation of port operations.

The Trump campaign also issued a statement, and said if Trump were president, the strike would have never happened.

“This is only happening because of the inflation brought on by Kamala Harris’ two votes for massive, out-of-control spending, and her decision to cut off energy exploration,” he said. “Americans who thrived under President Trump can’t even get by because of Kamala Harris – this strike is a direct result of her actions.”

Back to the battlegrounds

With less than five weeks to Nov. 5, new polling by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter Swing State Project Survey shows that Harris is either narrowly leading or tied with Trump in nearly all seven battleground states, except for Georgia.

Harris has a lead within the margin of error in Arizona and Wisconsin, by 2 points; Michigan by 3 points; and in Nevada and Pennsylvania by 1 point. Trump is ahead in Georgia 49% to 47% and the candidates are tied at 49% in North Carolina.

Trump will deliver remarks at a campaign rally in Saginaw, Michigan, on Thursday afternoon.

Harris on Thursday will travel to Wisconsin for a campaign event in Fox Valley before heading to Detroit, Michigan.

On Friday, Vance will head to Lindale, Georgia, to give a speech and Trump will travel to Fayetteville, North Carolina, for a town hall.

Harris will be in Detroit for various campaign events Friday before returning to Washington, D.C.

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Dockworkers demonstrate Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, at Maher Terminals in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association went on strike from Texas to Maine after the union failed to reach a new contract agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance over wages and automation. Tens of thousands of workers on strike could snarl supply chains, just a month ahead of the U.S. presidential election. (Photo by Mark J. Bonamo for New Jersey Monitor/States Newsroom)

ELIZABETH, N.J. — Tens of thousands of dockworkers went on strike from Texas to Maine on Tuesday to demand higher wages and a ban on all automation at ports in a move that could snarl supply chains only a month ahead of the presidential election.

The International Longshoremen’s Association union and the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents employers in the longshore industry, were unable to reach a new contract agreement. This is the union’s first strike since 1977, when dockworkers stopped work for several weeks.

More than 500 union members gathered at the gates of Maher Terminals in Elizabeth, New Jersey early Tuesday for the start of the strike. Harold Daggett, International President of the ILA, rallied the crowd as he spoke at one of the main container terminal operators at Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, an important facility for goods entering the New York Metropolitan area.

“These greedy corporations, everything they got, they got from us. We’re the ones who worked through the pandemic to make them the money they got,” Daggett said in an interview.

When asked how long the strike would last, Daggett said that union members will stay on strike “until the end.”

On Monday, the ILA said employers were price-gouging customers by charging much more for containers, which would lead to higher prices for consumers. It stated that the wages offered by USMX were still too low to accept.

“The Ocean Carriers represented by USMX want to enjoy rich billion-dollar profits that they are making in 2024, while they offer ILA Longshore Workers an unacceptable wage package that we reject,” the union said in a statement.  “ILA longshore workers deserve to be compensated for the important work they do keeping American commerce moving and growing.”

Scott Weiss, a member of ILA Local 1804-1, inspects containers that come off of ships entering at Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal, as well the chassis of the trucks that then carry the containers filled with goods away to destinations all along the East Coast.

Weiss said that the union is asking for wage increases that can cover the cost of inflation, and that a human eye is still needed to do his job right, even in the face of increasing automation.

“Employers push automation under the guise of safety, but it’s really about cutting labor costs to increase their already exceptionally high profits. Automation of our nation’s ports should be a concern for everyone,” he said. “The truth is robots do not pay taxes, and they do not spend money in their communities.”

The union said it will continue to handle military cargo and work passenger cruise ships.

Before the strike began, USMX said it offered a wage increase of nearly 50% and increasing employer contributions to employee retirement plans. USMX said their offer would still retain the same language on automation. The employers filed an unfair labor practice complaint on Wednesday with the National Labor Relations Board in which they accused the union of refusing to come to the bargaining table.

“In the last 24 hours, the USMX and ILA have traded counter offers related to wages. The USMX increased our offer and has also requested an extension of the current Master Contract, now that both sides have moved off their previous positions. We are hopeful that this could allow us to fully resume collective bargaining around the other outstanding issues – in an effort to reach an agreement,” USMX said in a statement Monday.

Voters remain laser-focused on the economy heading into the Nov. 5 election. Eighty-one percent of registered voters say the economy is very important to their vote for president this November, according to a poll published last month from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

Lauren Saidel-Baker, a speaker and economist at ITR Economics, a nonpartisan economic research and consulting firm based in New Hampshire, said that the longer the strike goes on, the greater the impact will be on inflation. Inflation cooled significantly enough for the Federal Reserve to cut the federal funds rate by half a percentage point last month.

“If this is just a week, again, there will be short-term disruptions and maybe things take a little bit longer to get where they’re going. That could be a risk for perishable items,” she said.

The supply chain issues that affected retail prices at the beginning of the pandemic may have prepared businesses for some disruption, she said, and this could mitigate some of the effects for consumers in the short term.

“We’re in a very unique situation where we just had this major, major supply chain disruption that caused a lot of American businesses to make contingency plans in a way that they just haven’t in the past. We have creativity and increased flexibility that will help us if this is just a brief disruption,” she said. “We still have elevated inventories in some sectors, so there might be a little bit more buffer in certain goods getting where they’re going.”

Aside from the economic effects on consumers, strikes can have spillover effects on other groups of workers. If dockworkers secure a strong contract as the result of this strike, it could affect other industries. Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, associate professor of international and public Affairs at Columbia University, and former deputy assistant secretary for research and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Labor, said the success of auto worker strikes and the Hollywood strikes may have emboldened union dockworkers.

“I think you’re likely to see other industries, particularly those most closely aligned with, um, transportation and logistics, really pick up the baton on that, especially if the economic and political environment continues to be favorable to them,” Hertel-Fernandez said.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has called on the Biden administration to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, which allows presidents to intervene in strikes if it creates a national emergency. President Joe Biden has said that he does not plan to do so.

Biden’s position is unlikely to change, Hertel-Fernandez said, because of the politics of the timing.

“I think you would see a pretty negative response from the labor movement if they were to do so,” he said. “Given that it’s so close to the election, where labor is such an important constituent for the Democrats, that they would be unlikely to do it.”

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Bonamo reported in Elizabeth for New Jersey Monitor, part of States Newsroom. Quinlan reported from Washington.

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