UNIONDALE, N.Y. – The Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters introduced on Wednesday that it gained’t endorse both Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump within the 2024 White Home election.
The highly effective union determined to remain impartial in a presidential race for the primary time in over a quarter-century – regardless of releasing inner polling of the union’s rank-and-file membership displaying majority help for Trump.
And the populist former president and his marketing campaign rapidly spotlighted the robust help amongst union employees.
“It’s a great honor. They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing,” Trump informed reporters shortly after the Teamsters announcement, throughout a cease in New York Metropolis forward of holding a rally on close by Lengthy Island.
DAVID MARCUS: WHY TEAMSTERS MEMBERS THINK TRUMP, NOT HARRIS, IS THE REAL FRIEND OF THE WORKING MAN
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks throughout a city corridor occasion on the Dort Monetary Heart in Flint, Mich., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photograph/Paul Sancya)
In a launch titled “Union Workers Support President Donald Trump,” the marketing campaign highlighted the previous president’s greater than 25-point margin over the vice chairman in each on-line and cellphone survey’s of Teamsters members.
Trump marketing campaign nationwide press secretary Karoline Leavitt argued in an announcement that “the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear — they want President Trump back in the White House! 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 highly effective union, which has over a million members within the U.S. and is deeply linked to working-class voters in the important thing Midwestern normal election battlegrounds and in different swing states throughout the nation, till now had endorsed the Democratic candidate for president in each election since 1980.
And the Teamsters turned the one one of many nation’s prime ten to not again Harris within the 2024 presidential showdown.
Requested if the transfer by the Teamsters will impression the election, Trump mentioned “I think it will. Yeah, I think so. The Teamsters carry a lot of weight.”
Trump’s help amongst Teamsters has surged since Harris changed President Biden on the prime of the Democratic Occasion’s 2024 ticket two months in the past, the union’s information indicated. The union’s polling previous to Biden dropping out confirmed the president was forward of Trump amongst members, 44.3% to 36.3%.
DNC APPARENTLY SNUBS TEAMSTERS PRESIDENT FOLLOWING HIS HISTORIC RNC SPEECH
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Management Convention, at Ronald Reagan Constructing in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photograph/Jose Luis Magana) (AP Photograph/Jose Luis Magana)
Biden made historical past as the primary president to stroll the picket traces with putting employees.
In explaining the reasoning for declining to endorse a 2024 presidential candidate on Wednesday, the union mentioned in an announcement, “The union’s extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump.”
Teamsters normal president Sean O’Brien mentioned that “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,” O’Brien added.
O’Brien, chatting with reporters on Monday after the union’s govt board assembly with Harris [the board met earlier this year with Trump and separately with Biden], mentioned that the polling of the rank and file members could be an necessary issue – however not the one consider whether or not they would endorse – and if that’s the case – whom they might endorse.
UNION LEADER’S PROVOCATIVE RNC SPEECH DRAWS IRE FROM SOME IN ORGANIZED LABOR
Basic President of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters Sean O’Brien speaks throughout the first day of the 2024 Republican Nationwide Conference on the Fiserv Discussion board in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Pictures)
O’Brien famous that any endorsement is “going to come down to the rank and file members, the polling and also the discussion and deliberation of the general executive board.”
He additionally reiterated his criticism of Trump’s latest feedback in an interview with billionaire enterprise mogul Elon Musk – when the previous president praised the tech CEO for retaliating in opposition to putting employees by firing them – which is against the law.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Requested if Trump’s feedback would impression the Teamsters endorsement, O’Brien mentioned “it plays into the decision.”
The Harris marketing campaign, in an announcement to Fox Information after the transfer by the union to not again both main social gathering presidential nominee, pointed to endorsements from “many Teamsters locals and rank-and-file.”
“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 marketing campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt mentioned.
Hitt added that “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.”
