Teamsters Union Makes No Endorsement in Presidential Race; First Time They Haven't Endorsed a Democrat Since 1996

Now, some of you will say the union members greatly preferred Trump, so they should have endorsed Trump!

Right you are, I'm getting to that. Gimme a quick second. First, the non-endorsement:

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will not issue an endorsement in the presidential election for the first time since 1996, and for only the second time since 1960.

Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said "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 said.

The Teamsters endorsed President Biden during the 2020 election, and has consistently supported Democratic presidential nominees in recent election cycle.

The union notably waited to announce its endorsement decision far longer than other unions and labor organizations, including the United Auto Workers, National Education Association, Service Employees International Union and AFL-CIO, which all endorsed Biden, then Vice President Harris, after the president dropped out of the race in July.

The Teamsters has endorsed GOP presidential candidates, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and O'Brien's flirtation with former President Trump and Republicans sparked speculation the union could once again break from the pack.

Now: The union conducted a poll to determine its members' sentiments about the election.

It turns out those sentiments, get this, didn't matter to the corrupt leadership. The members strongly preferred Trump, which resulted in... no endorsement either way.

Ah, Democracy! We must all work to save our precious Democracy, where the people's votes never matter and the Party always picks the winners.

Below, the Teamsters' own data for the race. While Teamsters preferred Biden over Trump in a straw poll conducted a while ago, they now approve Trump over Harris by 58-59% to 31%, depending on the metric. An electronic poll of members says one thing, a "research" effort (which I guess consists of randomly calling members) says another. But both show almost 60% preference for Trump.

The leadership's conclusion? Too close to call!

Andrew Kerr
@AndrewKerrNC

what a load of shit. Teamsters says no presidential candidate earned the endorsement of their members. Polling data they just released shows the overwhelming majority of their members support Trump. It isn't even close.

I guess some Mysterious Crates of Midnight Votes came in at the last minute, when cameras were turned off.

The corrupt, criminal leadership of the union announced a curious standard for selecting a candidate to endorse. If Kamala Hoorish won a mere majority, they'd endorse her, but they would only endorse Trump if he secured a "universal" preference from members:

Heads the Democrats win, tails the Democrats win. The Republicans only win if the coin somehow lands perfectly on its edge and remains there.

That's not an answer. All you're saying is that members strongly preferred Trump, so this should be a wake-up call to Democrats. What you were actually asked is given that members strongly preferred Trump, why didn't the corrupt union honor their preference by endorsing Trump?

All this Democrat operative is saying is that Democrats can't take their endorsement for granted -- even though the Teamster leadership will always endorse the Democrat or, when the membership positively revolts, decline to endorse anyone.

So yes, Democrats can absolutely take your endorsement for granted. Worst case scenario, you'll merely endorse no one.

posted by Ace at 05:34 PM

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