In break with tradition, the Teamsters will not endorse a presidential candidate

Updated September 18, 2024 at 16:03 PM ET

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is not endorsing a candidate for president, in a move that breaks with decades of Teamsters precedent and sets them apart from other major labor unions.

"After reviewing six months of nationwide member polling and wrapping up nearly a year of rank-and-file roundtable interviews with all major candidates for the presidency, the union was left with few commitments on top Teamsters issues from either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris—and found no definitive support among members for either party’s nominee," the Teamsters executive board announced Wednesday.

The announcement comes as a blow to Vice President Kamala Harris, who met with Teamsters leadership for a roundtable discussion on Monday. The union released an internal, electronic poll earlier Wednesday that showed nearly 60% of members wanted leadership to back Trump. An internal poll conducted by phone showed 58% of members supported Trump, compared to 31% backing Harris.

Harris has won the support of many key labor groups, including the United Auto Workers, the AFL-CIO, the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, and the Culinary Union in Nevada. The Teamsters has more than one million members nationwide.

"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 spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in a statement. "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," Hitt added.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, touted the union's internal polling Wednesday, saying "while the Executive Board of the Teamsters is making no formal endorsement, the vast majority of rank-and-file working men and women in this important organization want President Donald Trump back in the White House."

Teamsters President Sean O'Brien has stressed that this year's endorsement process included hundreds of small meetings at Teamsters locals across the country. Additionally, union members were encouraged to weigh in with their opinion on who to endorse by using a bar-code and their smart-phone.

Union workers have been a key demographic for both Democrats and Republicans in this election, given their outsize influence in key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada. One in every 5 voters in swing states is a union worker, according to AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.

Prior to this cycle, the Teamsters had endorsed every Democratic presidential nominee since Bill Clinton. But O'Brien made headlines in July when he became the first Teamsters president to speak at the Republican National Convention in the union's history.

"The Teamsters are not interested if you have a D, R, or an I next to your name.," O'Brien said during his primetime RNC remarks. "We want to know one thing: What are you doing to help American workers?" He went on to praise former President Trump as "a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud, and often critical voices," and "one tough S.O.B." in light of the July 13 attempt on his life at a Butler, Pa. rally.

O'Brien urged Republicans to adopt a more labor-friendly agenda, reform labor laws and protect workers from "corporate elites. Less than a month later, though, Trump praised Tesla CEO Elon Musk for threatening to fire striking workers.

"They go on strike and you say, 'That’s OK, you’re all gone,'" Trump said to Musk during a conversation on X, formerly known as Twitter. Those comments prompted the United Auto Workers to file federal labor charges against Trump and Musk. In a statement to Politico, O'Brien said "firing workers for organizing, striking, and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism."

Democrats have historically carried union households by large margins. But in 2016, Trump was able to cut into that lead, helping him win Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and the presidency. Four years later, President Biden won each of those states.

The Teamsters' internal polling showed that between April and July, roughly 44 percent of union members wanted leadership to endorse Biden, while roughly 36 percent supported backing Trump. But Harris won only 34 percent of member support in the electronic internal poll between July and September. Some local Teamsters branches, as well as the Teamsters National Black Caucus, have endorsed Harris since she entered the race.

In their announcement, Teamsters leadership said they were "unable to secure" key commitments on labor issues from either candidate. But Harris did commit to sign the PRO Act, a bill that expands protections for workers to organize and bargain, and criticized "right to work" laws, which prevent unions from requiring dues and fees. Trump would not commit to vetoing national "right to work" laws, which leadership called a "red line."

Harley Shaiken, a labor analyst at UC Berkeley, called the Teamsters decision to stay neutral "a very significant mistake."

Copyright 2024 NPR