Pete Buttigieg Unveils Economic Plan Ahead of CNN Debates.
MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We were promised a rising tide that would lift all boats. Sure enough, GDP went up, businesses boomed, the stock market grew over decades but our paychecks didn't show it. Our incomes have basically stayed flat. That is why today I'm sharing a plan that fights to get Americans the pay raise we deserve. Does America deserve a raise?</s>CROWD: Yes!</s>HENDERSON: That's Mayor Pete Buttigieg making his pitch to voters on the economy ahead of the CNN debates. The 2020 candidate directly takes on big tech companies like Google, Uber, and Lyft while putting labor unions front and center. Vanessa Yurkevich, she's covering Buttigieg campaign for CNN. Vanessa, lay out exactly what Mayor Pete is trying to do with this new plan.</s>VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS REPORTER: Hi, Nia. Well, he's really trying to put workers' rights front and center as well as put big tech companies in the hot seat. Now, this plan is very comprehensive. I just want to know a couple of highlights from the plan for people to take note of. It guarantees all American workers the right to join a union, introduces multimillion-dollar penalties for employer interference in union elections and workers' rights, and it allows workers to collectively bargain with their direct parent companies. And as you mentioned, in that plan he names three big tech companies, Uber, Lyft, and Google. These companies employ contracted workers more in favor of full-time employees. So those contracted independent workers don't get the same rights and benefits as full-time workers. Pete Buttigieg under this plan wants to allow those independent workers to unionize and collective bargain. Now, I asked him last night in an exclusive phone interview I had with him ahead of this rollout, is he really willing to take on big tech. And he said, yes, he was. Also, Nia, of interest, his big fundraising of this quarter, this is the second quarter, about $25 million, a lot of that money came from Silicon Valley. A lot of the people he raised money from were these Silicon Valley executives. And now he is rolling out this proposal aimed directly at them. Nia?</s>HENDERSON: Yes, that's really interesting there. Vanessa thanks for that report. And we'll bring it to the table here. We've got about 90 seconds. Julie, what do you make of this? He talked about the idea that he's been able to raise this money but still hasn't gained much traction with voters. He's about five percent I think in the latest polls I've seen.</s>DAVIS: Right. If only his dollars could be actual poll numbers. You know, I think it's pretty clear here. I mean, he said from the outset that he wanted to try to appeal to these voters that are not have left the Democratic Party and essentially Democrats know they have to appeal to the white working class, you know, and become again what in many places they are no longer which is the party of unions, the part of working people. And so I think this plan is clearly focused on trying to really win over those voters at a time when President Trump is trying to tout the economy and his, you know, his popularity with working people as a selling point. And so I think he's really trying to focus in on that group of voters that Democrats have had a little bit of trouble attracting in the last cycle.</s>HENDERSON: And going after big tech also a theme in this Democratic primary, primarily I think from somebody like Elizabeth Warren, who's made that a centerpiece of her campaign.</s>BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes, she's been very aggressive about that. Sanders as well has talked extensively about that. And again, I think we're seeing from Buttigieg's effort to try to catch up in a way because he has been slow to release these very detailed policy plans which was a criticism early on of him. And now as they're getting into these debates, and he's very much likely going to make the fall debate. He has to start putting more meat on the bones.</s>HENDERSON: And he's probably going to make a lot of the debates because of his fundraising numbers. He's going to probably be able to stay in this thing.</s>LUCEY: Yes, he certainly moved into this sort of upper tier of candidates at this point. But I think in terms of, you know, targeting voters in these states, targeting union voters, he's got competition there. A number of other candidates in this primary are really -- I mean, most notably obviously Joe Biden but also Bernie Sanders. There are lots of people really trying to make a play for those voters that are seen as, you know, kind of key people that strayed from the Democratic Party in the last election.</s>HENDERSON: Yes, and we'll see what he does in next week's debate. Tuesday and Wednesday next week in Detroit, of course, on CNN. Thanks for joining us on INSIDE POLITICS. John King is back here Sunday morning at 8 a.m. Eastern. Brianna Keilar starts after a quick break.