For a moment Wednesday afternoon, it looked like Kamala Harris would lose the Teamsters Union endorsement to Donald Trump, when the union posted the results of its presidential endorsement poll on X.
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In the electronic poll of members, Trump beat Harris by more than 25 percentage points. In the phone poll, the margin was 27 points.
Here’s the entire text of the tweet:
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 Teamsters General President Sean M. 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.”
Sean O’Brien has been teasing that a possible endorsement was coming Donald Trump’s way for a while now. Notably, he was a speaker at the Republican National Convention in July but was denied a speaking spot by the Democrats at their August convention. Was the snub by the DNC the reason that rank-and-file Teamster union members seem to be throwing their support behind Trump?
RedState’s Ward Clark pondered the possibility of Kamala blowing it with unions a few weeks ago:
The big unions have been Democrat strongholds for many decades. They have been, since the FDR years, a constituency that the Democrats could rely on, but now they seem to be throwing that away by neglect. Is this on purpose, or is it just stupidity? A good argument could be made for both. The left is losing the working class, and it’s not just happening in the United States.
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As Ward notes, this is a really big deal since Democrats have historically garnered the endorsements of the country’s largest unions.
Unfortunately, Teamsters leadership decided that those margins were not large enough for the union to actually endorse Trump. About 30 minutes after that initial X post, the union announced that they would not be endorsing either candidate:
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.
No definitive support? Do they have superdelegates in these polls, or are the Teamsters leaders in need of remedial math lessons?
Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said:
“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.
“Our mission as union representatives is clear: to be honest and upfront, to be inclusive and, above all, to be transparent with our membership. As the strongest and most democratic labor union in America, it was vital for our members to drive this endorsement process. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents proudly call our union home, and we have a duty to represent and respect every one of them. We strongly encourage all our members to vote in the upcoming election, and to remain engaged in the political process. But this year, no candidate for President has earned the endorsement of the Teamsters’ International Union.”
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What that means is that O’Brien is too afraid of the blowback from Democrats, who continually preach unity and ending the political divisions in the country, to stand behind his members.
The Teamsters poll favoring Trump seems to be part of trend, with Democrats losing support from their previous core voting blocs, such as Hispanics and blacks. These results seem like further proof that the Democrats are no longer the party of the working class. Even though the Teamster endorsement didn’t come through for Trump, the door has swung wide open for the GOP, and they’ll hopefully be smart enough to walk through it.