A group campaigning for Kamala Harris in Wisconsin served union workers an “insulting” lunch as they made their pitch for the vice president in 2024. The meal consisted of a single-slice-of-ham sandwich on stale bread, a bag of chips, and a small apple. The union workers, who were building a $1 billion Microsoft data center, found the meal to be lacking and the accompanying speech bashing President-elect Donald Trump to be uninspiring. The lunch and campaign pitch were possibly funded by the Harris campaign and organized by an out-of-state ironworkers union.
The union worker who attended the lunch described the experience as disappointing and felt that even a simple barbecue meal would have been less insulting than what was provided. The group that made the pitch reportedly purchased lunch for the workers and then required them to listen to their speech. The content of the speech focused on criticisms of Trump, particularly his treatment of union workers who had built his casino in Atlantic City. Some workers threw their lunches in the trash in response to the speech.
During the lunch, a co-worker informed the union member that he had witnessed inmates at the Racine County Correctional facility making the same lunches that were served to the workers. The union worker found this to be ironic and pathetic, highlighting the stark contrast between the poor quality of the lunch and the millions of dollars spent by Harris’ team on events featuring celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga. The union member believed that Harris did not focus enough on gaining support from blue-collar workers in her campaign.
The union worker criticized the Harris campaign for prioritizing the aesthetic of their brand over genuinely connecting with working-class people. He suggested that investing in a higher quality lunch for the workers would have been a good starting point for building support among blue-collar voters. Despite repeated attempts to contact the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and the Harris campaign for comment, they did not respond. Ultimately, Trump won over Harris in Wisconsin by about 30,000 votes, or 1 percentage point, and went on to win all the swing states in a historic Election Day victory.
