The port strike threatened to cripple the economy and was the most politically threatening of a trio of recent challenges faced by Harris and the White House.
The White House heavily pressured both the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) to come to the table in the days before and after dockworkers walked off the job early Tuesday morning.
The longshoreman’s union and the coalition of companies reached a tentative agreement Thursday night to end the strike.
Democrats also got a boost from Friday’s jobs report, which showed the labor market remained strong despite fears this summer of weakening.
The U.S. added an impressive 254,000 jobs in September, well above the 140,000 anticipated by economists.
Upward revisions for July and August showed an additional 72,000 jobs added across the two months, suggesting earlier signs of weakening weren’t as pronounced as they first appeared.
The unemployment rate also ticked down to 4.1 percent last month, similarly easing concerns about rising joblessness.
The strong jobs report comes as inflation inches closer to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. After peaking at 9.1 percent in June 2022, inflation has eased significantly, falling to 2.5 percent this August.
The central bank, which raised interest rates to a two-decade high in the face of rising prices, signaled an end to its war on inflation last month, reducing rates for the first time with a 50 basis-point cut.
“Harris is not literally running for reelection, but she is coming out of an incumbent administration, so she is being judged on the state of the current economy,” Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Yale Budget Lab and former chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told The Hill.
“Anything that is good about the current economy probably helps her, whether fairly or unfairly.”
The Hill’s Julia Shapero has more here.
