Teamsters Union Delivers Crushing Blow to Kamala Harris

In 2020, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket. A press release announcing their endorsement cited “their strong record of standing with working families throughout each of their careers.”

Today, Kamala Harris failed to get the union’s presidential endorsement after internal polling showed that the union’s rank-and-file members support Donald Trump for president.

By a lot.

“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,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement. “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.”

However, the Teamsters later announced that the union would make no endorsement in 2024, after it found “no definitive support among members for either party’s nominee.”

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 union’s extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump.

In other words, the union bosses were afraid to endorse Trump after their members clearly showed they preferred Donald Trump. When a candidate gets nearly 60% of the vote from its members, that’s definitive. No candidate could ever receive universal backing from a large union; pretending that such a standard is the norm is gutless and disingenuous.

Despite the gutless union bosses, the Trump campaign saw this as a huge win nonetheless.

“While the Teamsters Executive Board is making no formal endorsement, the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear— they want President Trump back in the White House!” Karoline Leavitt, the National Press Secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement. “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 last time the Teamsters stayed neutral in a presidential race was 1996. Since then, they’ve exclusively endorsed Democratic nominees in six consecutive elections, including Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. The last time the union endorsed a Republican was George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Before Biden dropped out of the race, Teamsters members had backed Joe Biden.

Despite Biden having a small lead among Teamsters members at the time, union officials hinted to various stakeholders that they might stay neutral this election cycle.

Knowing the importance of this endorsement, Kamala Harris met with Teamsters officials on Monday in the hopes of obtaining their endorsement.

As CNN noted, “An endorsement from the Teamsters, which counts members across a variety of industries and is heavily represented in critical swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – all of which went for Trump in 2016 before backing Biden four years later – would have been a crucial get for either candidate.”

But the lack of an endorsement in nevertheless a sucker punch to the Harris-Walz campaign, especially in critical battleground states where the union has a strong presence. It not only signals a missed opportunity for Kamala Harris, it’s a de facto endorsement of Trump. With the rank-and-file clearly supporting Trump, the union's neutrality will nevertheless boost his standing among the blue-collar voters he’s been working hard to make inroads with.

As CNN noted, the union’s backing would have been crucial for either candidate, but by staying out, the Teamsters are indirectly strengthening Trump’s hand in states that could decide the election.

So, yeah, it’s a big deal.