In a major blow to the Harris-Walz Campaign, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced Wednesday that it will not endorse a candidate for president. The nation’s largest union historically endorses Democrat candidates, and over 90 percent of the union’s political donations since 1990 have gone to the Democrat Party. The Teamsters have endorsed every Democrat presidential candidate since 1996.
However, “extensive” polling of Teamsters members indicated they overwhelming preferred Donald Trump over Kamala Harris.
Teamsters’ X account posted the results of its electronic and telephone polls earlier Wednesday, showing members favored Trump over Harris 59.6 percent to 34 percent and 58 percent to 31 percent respectively. In a previous poll, Joe Biden beat Trump by a smaller margin, 44.3 percent to 36.3 percent.
In the post, the union’s X account quoted Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien as promising a “transparent Presidential endorsement process.”
“For the past year, the Teamsters Union has pledged to conduct the most inclusive, democratic, and transparent Presidential endorsement process in the history of our 121-year-old organization—and today we are delivering on that promise to our members,” said O’Brien. “Our members are the union, and their voices and opinions must be at the forefront of everything the Teamsters do. Our final decision around a possible Presidential endorsement will not be made lightly, but you can be sure it will be driven directly by our diverse membership.”
The Teamsters General Executive Board announced its endorsement later Wednesday, punting in its decision.
“The General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Wednesday elected not to endorse any candidate for U.S. President,” the union announced.
In data publicly released earlier in the day, President Joe Biden won the support of Teamsters voting in straw polls at local unions between April-July prior to his exit from the race. But in independent electronic and phone polling from July-September, a majority of voting members twice selected Trump for a possible Teamsters endorsement over Harris.
The Teamsters board tried to justify its decision by saying that although the union’s polling showed no majority support for Harris, it didn’t show “universal support among the membership for President Trump.”
In July, Teamsters head Sean O’Brien addressed the Republican National Convention for the first time in the organization’s 121 years, praising Trump in what was described as “fiery and at times defiant remarks.”
“Today, the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party,” O’Brien declared in his speech on July 16. “We will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition, ready to accomplish something real for the American worker. And I don’t care about getting criticized.”
The labor leader added: “You can have whatever opinion you want but one thing is clear: President Trump is a candidate who’s unafraid to hear from new, loud and often critical voices.”
O’Brien stressed that the union isn’t “interested if you have a ‘D,’ ‘R’ or an ‘I’ next to your name. We want to know one thing: What are you doing to help American workers?”
In retaliation for his RNC speech, the Democrat party snubbed O’Brien when he requested a speaking slot at the DNC in August, Axios reported.
“We didn’t get a response to our request for him to speak,” said Kara Deniz, a Teamsters spokesperson.
The labor leader on Wednesday said that the decision not to endorse came after meeting with both candidates, and not, as some have surmised, as a result of the Democrat party’s hold on the union.
“The Teamsters thank all candidates for meeting with members face-to-face during our unprecedented roundtables. Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business. We sought commitments from both Trump and Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries—and to honor our members’ right to strike—but were unable to secure those pledges,” said O’Brien.
On Fox News Wednesday evening, O’Brien told Neil Cavuto: “the Democrats have always taken for granted that they are going to get our vote no matter what and the Republicans fancy themselves as the working peoples’ party. I think right now both sides need to take a step back and really reevaluate what their commitment is to working people—and that’s what we did in this process.”
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