Everything you need to know about the Pa. steel deal at the center of the presidential election

President Joe Biden is expected to soon block the impending $15 billion sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel and Pennsylvania voters are a big part of the political calculus behind the move, according to multiple reports.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have also come out against the deal, highlighting the political importance of Pa. as a crucial battleground state and their belief in the United Steelworkers union as a politically powerful voting bloc. The presidential candidates are polling close, with some polls showing Harris and Trump deadlocked in Pa.

The former President said in January he would move to block the sale if elected, and, speaking to a hall full of union members in Pittsburgh on Labor Day, Harris said U.S. Steel “should remain American-owned and American-operated.” She’s now staying in the southwestern Pa. city until her first debate with Trump in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, U.S. Steel executives say thousands of Pittsburgh jobs are at risk if the deal dies.

This is what you need to know.

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.), who put himself on the political map while serving as the mayor of Braddock, just outside of Pittsburgh, rejected the sale as soon as it was announced in December. U.S. Steel operates a plant in Braddock across the street from his home.

“It’s absolutely outrageous that U.S. Steel has agreed to sell themselves to a foreign company,” he said. “This is yet another example of hardworking Americans being blindsided by greedy corporations willing to sell out their communities to serve their shareholders.”

Fetterman joined Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) and Rep. Chris Deluzio (D., Pa.) in a December letter urging U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to block the sale, citing national security and economic concerns. Japan, though, is a U.S. ally and Jason Furman, a Harvard economist and former Obama official, told the New York Times the “national security arguments … seem weak.”

The three Pennsylvania lawmakers have continued to speak out against the sale.

Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate running against Casey, called the deal a “tragedy” and hammered his opponent and Biden in a video on X.

On Wednesday, U.S. Steel executives warned it would close some steel mills, eliminating thousands of union jobs and signaled that the company would move its headquarters out of Pennsylvania if the Nippon deal fell through, according to a Reuters report.

“We want elected leaders and other key decision makers to recognize the benefits of the deal as well as the unavoidable consequences if the deal fails,” said U.S. Steel CEO David Burritt in a statement.

In response, Casey released a statement blasting what his office called “Burritt’s threats.”

“David Burritt’s threats to abandon the very community that built U.S. Steel is a slap in the face to the steelworkers whose skill and work ethic make the company successful and to the people of Southwestern Pennsylvania whose livelihoods rely on the steel industry,” said Casey.

With polls showing Pennsylvania voters virtually split between Harris and Trump, the election could be decided by a very small number of votes in the battleground state.

Both candidates view the United Steelworkers as an important bloc to win in Pennsylvania.

Any national or economic security concerns appear to pale in comparison to political ones, experts said.

Nick Wall, an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions, told the New York Times the presidential election ”is going to be won or lost in several key states that just so happen to be at the very center of this deal.”

Not every elected official thinks tanking the U.S. Steel-Nippon deal is the best choice. Sam DeMarco III, an Allegheny County council member at large and the county’s Republican Party chair called the debacle “extremely damaging.”

“It signals that we’re not open for investment, that we’re not business-friendly,” he told the Times.

The United Steelworkers are the staunchest opponents to the deal. USW said company executives agreed to the sale without consulting the union in violation of their collective bargaining agreement.

“Neither U.S. Steel nor Nippon reached out to our union regarding the deal, which is in itself a violation of our partnership agreement…” said USW International President Dave McCall in a statement.

McCall also blasted executives’ decision to “sell to a foreign-owned company.”

The union worries Nippon’s promise not to layoff union workers will expire when the collective bargaining agreement does in 2026. The union also said Nippon would be able to lay workers off in the event of significant, unfavorable business conditions.

An Ohio-based steel company ranking 25th in the world called Cleveland Cliffs had previously offered to acquire U.S. Steel for about half of the amount Nippon bid. USW favored the Cleveland Cliffs deal, which U.S. executives ultimately rejected.

American executives have touted the sale as repositioning U.S. Steel, which would become a subsidiary of Nippon, as a top steel manufacturer once again. Nippon is the world’s third largest producer. The deal is expected to boost Nippon to become the second largest steel producer in the world, behind a Chinese state-owned corporation.

As home to the United States Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh earned the moniker Steeltown USA.

U.S. Steel was the nation’s first $1 billion company and when it hit the stock market in 1900, it saw the biggest initial public offering ever. At its height, it was a pivotal part of the nation’s economy and the world’s leading steel producer, manufacturing 67% of the globe’s steel.

As the industrial economy collapsed in America, U.S. Steel saw its fortunes fall. It closed several plants and now ranks 27th in global steel production, according to the World Steel Association.