Kamala Harris gets Randi Weingarten’s endorsement

Jul 22, 2024

Kamala Harris pointing to the right in front of a giant U.S. flag.

AFT’s executive council has voted to endorse Kamala Harris for president, subject to ratification from union delegates. | Chris duMond/Getty Images

WHAT’S NEXT? — The head of the American Federation of Teachers called on the Democratic Party to place Vice President Kamala Harris atop its 2024 presidential ticket Sunday, hours after President Joe Biden upended the election and backed his former running mate.

— “I’m sending the message that this administration has been the most impactful in my lifetime and that we need to actually have this administration continue this work and chart a course for the future that is about improving people’s lives,” Randi Weingarten told your host shortly after Biden’s globe-rattling decision.

— “Kamala Harris has been Joe Biden’s partner; she has been voted on as a vice president by millions of people,” Weingarten added. “We believe that she would be a great standard-bearer to make the contrast with Donald Trump.”

— Weingarten’s public push for party unity marked a small part of a turbulent day that steeped Democrats further into chaos weeks before the party’s conclave in Chicago.

— On Sunday morning, Weingarten was deriding efforts to push Biden away from the nomination and preparing to describe Harris as qualified for the presidency during a speech to union representatives in Houston this afternoon. (“This fantasy that billionaire donors are having, that they can yoke this away from the president because they don't like his performance at the debate, is wrong,” she told Weekly Education hours before Biden stunned even members of his own campaign.)

— By Sunday afternoon, Weingarten was tearing up part of her prepared remarks, issuing a statement that thanked Biden for a presidency she described as “one of the most consequential and meaningful in the history of the country” — and assembling the AFT’s executive council for an evening meeting where she proposed backing Harris’ leadership of the Democratic presidential ticket.

— AFT’s executive council then voted to endorse Harris, subject to ratification from union delegates this week.

— “We believe that the party should unite around this, let’s just say,” said Weingarten, who serves as an influential member of the Democratic National Committee.

— Count Education Secretary Miguel Cardona as a supporter, too. “All in!” the secretary tweeted from his personal account alongside a picture of the vice president.

— National Education Association President Becky Pringle, in her own statement Sunday, did not directly address Harris’ candidacy.

— “We will renew our efforts to ensure President Biden is succeeded by a leader equally dedicated to building the future our students, educators, and families deserve,” Pringle said. “In the coming days, NEA will engage its leaders to discuss the next steps and ensure the powerful voice of our members is heard in this election.”

— First comes a busy week in Houston. Weingarten is also running for another term at the AFT’s helm. A series of resolutions that include calls for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war are also on the agenda. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra are scheduled to speak to union members.

IT’S MONDAY, JULY 22. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. Federal workers throughout Washington were nervously looking on as President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign buckled under mounting pressure for him to step aside.

Reach out with tips to today’s host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Becca Carballo (rcarballo@politico.com), Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com) and Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com).

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White House

President Joe Biden embraces Vice President Kamala Harris during a campaign event.

President Joe Biden embraces Vice President Kamala Harris during a campaign event at Girard College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 29, 2024. | Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images

POLICY ROUNDUP — Vice President Kamala Harris could soon become the standard-bearer for the Democratic Party’s policy priorities, including student debt relief and free college.

— In 2017, Harris was an original co-sponsor of Sanders' plan for free college, which aimed to eliminate tuition and fees for all students attending two-year colleges and middle-class students at four-year public institutions.

— But by the time Harris hit the campaign trail in 2020, she had backed a measure from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) that called for going even further by factoring in the comprehensive costs of college.

— Harris was also an early voice inside the Biden administration advocating for forgiving student debt.

— Looking for more? POLITICO’s policy teams have you covered.

IN THE STATES

ON THE CLOCK — Oklahoma’s Supreme Court is still entangled in a skirmish between church and state this month, weeks after a majority of its justices ordered officials to scrap a pending state contract with a public religious charter school.

— The Catholic school’s contract is still alive, in a simmering challenge to the court’s authority that now has Oklahoma’s attorney general pushing a state board to cancel that agreement by July 30.

— Call it a game of bureaucratic cat-and-mouse as the school’s fate inches toward a potential challenge in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

— New officials now supervise Oklahoma’s charter schools, after a 2023 change in state law elevated appointees tapped by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and legislative leaders to replace the onetime Statewide Virtual Charter School Board.

— Yet at its inaugural meeting earlier this month, the rebuilt Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board did not rescind the state’s contract with the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School despite June’s ruling.

— State charter officials have said they intend to comply with the court’s orders. But they’ve also slow-played action amid a planned appeal.

— “Should St. Isidore prevail at the U.S. Supreme Court, the parties should not have to undertake any unnecessary time and effort to execute a replacement contract to return them to their current position,” the school’s attorneys told Oklahoma’s high court this month in a request to preserve the contract amid the planned appeal. “The U.S. Supreme Court is also reasonably likely to grant review.”

— The state court has not yet ruled on the school’s request. The school has agreed it won’t start classes for at least a year as planned legal challenges play out. None of this is sitting well with state Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

— Drummond’s office formally objected to the school’s plea for the contract to remain in place last week, and is now demanding that the charter board schedule a meeting to cancel the contract no later than the end of the month.

In the Courts

PATCHWORK ENFORCEMENT — A federal judge on Friday suggested the Education Department should postpone implementing its rule that bolsters discrimination protections for transgender students, Bianca reports.

— Kansas District Court Judge John Broomes declined the department’s request to allow most of the rule to be implemented. The Education Department had asked the judge to consider allowing parts of the rule to be enforceable while the legal proceedings are ongoing, citing difficulty enforcing it in a patchwork way.

— “Suffice it to say that, to the extent Defendants are concerned about the difficulties in managing patchwork enforcement in compliance with the preliminary injunction, this is a problem of DoE's own making,” Broomes wrote. He added: “Congress gave DoE the authority to postpone the effective date of the Final Rule pending judicial review. Maybe DoE should use that authority.”

— Broomes, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, previously blocked the Biden administration’s Title IX rule earlier this month. The ruling blocked the administration from enforcing the rule in Kansas, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming and at hundreds of schools across the nation where there are members of Young America's Foundation and Female Athletes United, as well as children of members of the conservative Moms for Liberty organization.

— Broomes on Friday also denied Moms for Liberty’s request to expand the reach of the ruling to each county where the group has a member instead of specific schools. He also denied the administration’s request to limit the ruling to only current members of the groups.

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Syllabus

— Campus protests led to more than 3,100 arrests, but many charges have been dropped: The New York Times

— Bipartisan coalition issues call to cut chronic absenteeism in half as kids continue to miss school: Chalkbeat

— Nearly 700 more colleges don’t have to comply with new Title IX rule: Inside Higher Ed

— ACT to shorten exam time and make science portion optional: K-12 Dive

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