International Brotherhood of Teamsters Announced It Will Not Endorse Anyone for President

This marks the first time in 66 years that the union has not endorsed in the race for America’s highest office.

Published November 5, 2024

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters continues to make history. Earlier this year, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Committee, a first in the union’s 121-year history. Now, the Teamsters has become the only one of the major unions to refuse to withhold a Presidential endorsement.

“Under our leadership we brought every single candidate to the table in front of our rank and file members and our general election board,” said Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. “Half of our members are Republicans, half of our members are Democrats, so we have to serve all of our membership equally.”

Teamsters Local 528, Local 1129, and Local 728 cover Georgians across a variety of professions. Nationally, the union includes approximately 1.3 million workers in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Georgia ranks eighth lowest in the U.S. for union membership at 4.4% of workers.

After President Biden withdrew from the election, the union commissioned two independent polls of its members to gauge Presidential preference. In both, former President Trump won nearly 60% of support among members.

“The American people aren’t stupid, they know the system is broken,” O’Brien said in his address to the RNC. “At the end of the day, the Teamsters are not interested if you have a ‘D,’ ‘R’ or an ‘I’ next to your name. We want to know one thing. What are you doing to help American workers?”

Union leaders acknowledged the widespread support of former President Trump among the membership but withheld an endorsement largely due to his support of Right-To-Work legislation. Supporters say right-to-work laws empower individual workers by giving them the choice whether or not to join a union. Opponents say right-to-work laws take away the power of unions by allowing workers to opt-out of union membership.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has held meetings with former President Trump as the latter has made working-class economic concerns a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign. Polls show that the former President currently has the most working class support of any Republican candidate in the past 40 years.