The coveted Teamsters endorsement remains elusive, with the union announcing that neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris has received their official support. This is despite the union, which represents over 1.3 million working members across the United States, having endorsed the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Democratic ticket in 2020. Teamsters president Sean O’Brien was also a featured speaker at the 2024 Republican National Convention, but wasn’t chosen to speak at the following Democratic National Convention. According to some internal polls, though, Trump has received more votes from its members over Harris.
Why Teamsters didn’t endorse Trump despite higher internal poll numbers
The Teamsters says that that “no candidate for President has earned the endorsement” of the union in an official statement, after revealing mixed results of various internal polls taken between April and September 2024.
While Biden was still the 2024 Democratic nominee for President earlier in the year, he received 44.3% of the vote in a town hall straw poll from April 9 to July 3, 2024. This was eight points ahead of Trump who had 36.3% of the vote.
Meanwhile, the latest polling conducted between September 9 and 15 has Trump with a commanding lead of 58% over Harris with 31%. This more recent poll was based on phone calls made to members after the RNC, DNC, and the Harris-Trump Presidential debate and independently conducted by Late Research Partners.
Still, Teamsters says that it “found no definitive support among members for either party’s nominee.” Despite nearly a year of interviews with all major candidates for the presidency, neither Trump nor Harris made any commitments to the union’s top issues.
Specifically, the union notes that neither candidate “promised not to intervene to force similar RLA contracts, which undermines workers’ bargaining leverage.” This refers to the Railway Labor Act, which many of its members in railroad and airline industries work under, and how “tens of thousands of railroad Teamsters were forced to accept a new contract implemented by Congress without member support in 2022.”
Trump also wouldn’t commit to vetoing national “right to work” legislation, which the union says “only exist to try to kill labor unions.” So though Trump polled higher than Harris, the union calls this issue a “red line” and it’s so important for the labor movement that it can’t “be left up to state legislatures.”
In September, singers Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, causing Donald Trump t Swift’s endorsement. The Pope also didn’t officially support either Harris or Trump.
