UNIONDALE, N.Y. — The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced Wednesday it won’t endorse either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Trump in the 2024 White House race.
The powerful union decided to remain 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 a rally on nearby Long Island.
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Former President Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall event at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on Tuesday. (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 online and phone surveys of Teamsters.
Another email from the campaign was headlined “Teamsters Non-Endorsement Is A “BLOW” To Harris As Rank-And-File Stick With Trump.”
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 has over 1 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, it had endorsed the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1980.
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And the Teamsters became the only one of the nation’s largest 10 unions not to back Harris in the 2024 presidential showdown.
Asked if the move by the Teamsters will affect 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%.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, speaks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Leadership Conference at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C, on Wednesday. (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 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, “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.
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“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 spoke to reporters Monday after the union’s executive board meeting with Harris. The board met earlier this year with Trump and separately with Biden. O’Brien said 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.
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 on July 15. (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.
Asked if Trump’s comments would affect the Teamsters endorsement, O’Brien said, “It plays into the decision.”
The Harris campaign, in a statement to Fox News after the union opted to remain neutral, 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.
“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.”
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
