MILWAUKEE — One of the nation’s largest unions has yet to endorse a presidential candidate as its leader makes history Monday by speaking at the Republican National Convention.
Sean O’Brien will become the first International Brotherhood of Teamsters president to address a party known for pushing anti-union legislation.
But O’Brien has yet to commit to either White House contender. In fact, the labor leader also requested a speaking slot at the Democratic convention in Chicago next month. His mere presence in Milwaukee illustrates the dire threat that President Joe Biden faces with union voters in an election where the Rust Belt has emerged as perhaps his only route to victory.
The Teamsters backed President Joe Biden in 2020, and Hilary Clinton four years prior. This year, it remains among the most politically influential national labor unions yet to issue a presidential endorsement, while more than two dozen others have gotten behind Biden.
The Teamsters’ prominent presence at the Republican convention helps former President Donald Trump‘s pitch for working-class voters and underscores a broader populist shift within the GOP. Siphoning off union votes in November could grow the Trump campaign’s reach with traditional factions of the Democratic base — working-class, Black, Latino and young voters.
Not every union member is thrilled with O’Brien’s RNC move.
“It legitimizes Donald Trump in the eyes of workers,” Tom Leedham, a retired Teamsters leader who ran for union president against Jimmy Hoffa Jr., said critically. “He’s claiming that he is the president of working people. It helps him with that image.”
The Teamsters typically back Democratic presidential nominees, and Biden has touted himself as the most pro-union president in history, even walking picket lines with United Auto Workers during their strike in Michigan earlier this year.
But union support for the Democratic Party has been shrinking. One analysis concluded that the diminished support for Clinton in 2016 may have been enough to account for her losses in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — swing states that factor heavily into Biden’s reelection bid.
Trump has been leaning into the idea that working class-voters are flocking to him on the campaign trail. His promotion of protectionist trade deals and anti-immigration positions are framed as a benefit to “American workers,” and this message was included in the RNC’s platform. Trump also recently pitched halting federal taxes on tips.
And earlier this year, he became the first GOP presidential candidate to be interviewed for an endorsement from the Teamsters, after O’Brien flew to Mar-A-Lago to dine with the former president. Trump held a press conference following that meeting in the Teamsters’ lobby — and some members took note.
“He was the only candidate that got a chance to speak in our lobby with the thunder and lightning that that emblem means for the Teamsters. He was the only one that got that chance,” Richard Hooker Jr., of local 623 in Philadelphia, said in an interview. “And when you start to play around with something like that, it seems that you are validating his candidacy.”
An internal straw poll from the Teamsters showed 37 percent support for Trump, 46 percent for President Joe Biden and 5 percent for independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The rest were undecided, uncommitted or may not vote, board member John Palmer told POLITICO. But he added that not every local participated because they did not want to provoke tensions in their memberships.
At Trump’s interview with the Teamsters in January, one campaign staffer said he already had the endorsement of the Teamsters’ membership, and that it was a win just to get an interview.
Palmer believes there’s not been enough education from the Teamsters leadership explaining policy differences between Biden and Trump, such as in National Labor Relations Board appointments and Biden’s signing into law the Butch-Lewis Act, which saved some member pensions. The board member also acknowledged that an endorsement does not necessarily dictate how rank-and-file members will vote.
“We don’t tell our members what to do. We inform them as to why we would endorse the candidate,” Palmer said. “And that’s what’s been missing in this [process].”
While deliberating the endorsement decision, O’Brien asked for a speaking slot at both events. Trump quickly made an offer.
“When I am back in the White House, the hardworking Teamsters, and all working Americans, will once again have a country they can afford to live in and be respected around the world,” Trump said on Truth Social when O’Brien was announced as a speaker in June. “Sean, I look forward to seeing you represent the Teamsters in Milwaukee. Together we can Make America Great Again.”
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