UNIONDALE, N.Y. – The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced on Wednesday that it won’t endorse either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump in the 2024 White House election.
The powerful union decided to stay neutral in a presidential race for the first time in over a quarter-century – despite releasing internal polling of the union’s rank-and-file membership showing majority support for Trump.
And the populist former president and his campaign quickly spotlighted the strong support among union workers.
“It’s a great honor. They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing,” Trump told reporters shortly after the Teamsters announcement, during a stop in New York City ahead of holding a rally on nearby Long Island.
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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a town hall event at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Mich., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
In a release titled “Union Workers Support President Donald Trump,” the campaign highlighted the former president’s more than 25-point margin over the vice president in both on-line and phone survey’s of Teamsters members.
Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued in a statement that “the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear — they want President Trump back in the White House! These hardworking men and women are the backbone of America and President Trump will strongly stand up for them when he’s back in the White House.”
The powerful union, which has over one million members in the U.S. and is deeply connected to working-class voters in the key Midwestern general election battlegrounds and in other swing states across the country, until now had endorsed the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1980.
And the Teamsters became the only one of the nation’s top ten not to back Harris in the 2024 presidential showdown.
Asked if the move by the Teamsters will impact the election, Trump said “I think it will. Yeah, I think so. The Teamsters carry a lot of weight.”
Trump’s support among Teamsters has surged since Harris replaced President Biden at the top of the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket two months ago, the union’s data indicated. The union’s polling prior to Biden dropping out showed the president was ahead of Trump among members, 44.3% to 36.3%.
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Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Leadership Conference, at Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Biden made history as the first president to walk the picket lines with striking workers.
In explaining the reasoning for declining to endorse a 2024 presidential candidate on Wednesday, the union said in a statement, “The union’s extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump.”
Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien said that “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,” O’Brien added.
O’Brien, speaking to reporters on Monday after the union’s executive board meeting with Harris [the board met earlier this year with Trump and separately with Biden], said that the polling of the rank and file members would be an important factor – but not the only factor in whether they would endorse – and if so – whom they would endorse.
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General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Sean O’Brien speaks during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
O’Brien noted that any endorsement is “going to come down to the rank and file members, the polling and also the discussion and deliberation of the general executive board.”
He also reiterated his criticism of Trump’s recent comments in an interview with billionaire business mogul Elon Musk – when the former president praised the tech CEO for retaliating against striking workers by firing them – which is illegal.
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Asked if Trump’s comments would impact the Teamsters endorsement, O’Brien said “it plays into the decision.”
The Harris campaign, in a statement to Fox News after the move by the union not to back either major party presidential nominee, pointed to endorsements from “many Teamsters locals and rank-and-file.”
“While Donald Trump says striking workers should be fired, Vice President Harris has literally walked the picket line and stood strong with organized labor for her entire career,” Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said.
Hitt added that “the Vice President’s strong union record is why Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed her – alongside the overwhelming majority of organized labor. As the Vice President told the Teamsters on Monday, when she is elected president, she will look out for the Teamsters rank-and-file no matter what – because they always have been and always will be the people she fights for.”