(New York, August 7, 2024) – Today Members of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), the theatrical union that unites, empowers, and protects professional stage directors and choreographers throughout the United States, voted overwhelmingly to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz.
Vice President Harris leads a platform that emphasizes critical issues that directly impact the SDC Membership, including workers’ rights; arts and culture; access to affordable health care and reproductive rights; gun safety; and voting rights.
From casting the tie-breaking vote to protect multiemployer pension plans, to declaring her support for workers’ right to organize, to securing healthcare for workers during the pandemic, Vice President Harris’s commitment to the labor movement is clear from her record.
Evan Yionoulis, SDC President, said, “Vice President Kamala Harris is a champion for workers. In an election where no less than the future of the labor movement is at stake, there is no candidate better equipped to lead the charge in pursuit of a brighter future for the country and for arts workers across America. We are proud to endorse Vice President Harris and Governor Walz and look forward to energetically supporting their candidacy.”
Harris’s commitment to the issues that SDC Members care about is exemplified by her service in the White House over the past four years and the Biden-Harris administration’s focus on both labor and the arts.
Said SDC Executive Director Laura Penn, “President Biden understands that arts workers shape the soul of our nation, and the Biden-Harris administration’s support for our Members and their colleagues in the arts labor movement has been unwavering. President Biden issued an Executive Order re-establishing the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities saw increased funding under his leadership—all part of his extraordinary legacy of furthering public engagement with arts and culture in divisive times. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz stand ready to take up the mantle and continue to improve the lives of arts and culture workers across America, and we look forward to their success.”
Said Ruben Santiago-Hudson, SDC First Vice President, “At this critical time in our nation’s history, rights for laborers of all kinds, including artists, are being threatened. It is so important to continue the work of President Biden and his administration, which has been a staunch supporter of labor unions. I’m proud to be part of SDC and to endorse the Democratic nominees Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the upcoming election. They are the right team at the right time to move our nation forward and protect all things sacred to our livelihoods and our democracy.”
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