Perspective on the Teamsters refusal to endorse VP Kamala Harris

Get the Point!

Late this afternoon, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, more colloquially known as the "Teamsters Union," declined to endorse either Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris or Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

By so doing, one of America's most storied labor unions is sitting out a presidential election for the first time since 1996, back when neither then incumbent President Bill Clinton nor his challenger, Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), secured its bid. 

To cut straight to the chase, the Teamsters endorsement would have been far more beneficial for Kamala Harris than Trump, especially considering that the overwhelming majority (60%) of Union members are white males—a demographic that has trended Republican since the 1980's! A demographic, I remind, that Harris is hoping to siphon enough support from in the Rust Belt and adjacent states like Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to help with the critically important Electoral College math!

And make no mistake, while it is well known that non-college educated White males form the most solid core of Mr. Trump's MAGA base, since 1984, the Teamsters Union has endorsed Democratic nominees FAR more often than their Republican challengers!

Nota Bene:

1984—Ronald Reagan (R) 

1988—George H.W. Bush (R)

1992—Bill Clinton (D)

1996—No Endorsement

2000—Al Gore (D)

2004—John Kerry (D)

2008—Barack Obama (D)

2012—Barack Obama (D)

2016—Hillary Clinton (D)

2020—Joe Biden (D)

2024—No Endorsement

Even a cursory glance of prior Teamsters endorsements reveals that the labor union has not always picked the winner, with notable losses including Democratic nominees Gore, Kerry, and Hillary Clinton. But the same glance reveals that with the exception of Reagan and Bush the Elder some 40 and 36 years ago, respectively, the Democratic Party's nominee has held great sway with the Union far more often than it has not. 

Why?

Well, think back to your old U.S. History courses and remember how as the "Robber Barons" from major corporations endured trust busting laws supported to varying extents by Congress members and presidents from both parties during the early 20th Century, as the opulent wealth of post World War I America during the "Roaring 20's" morphed into the despair of the Great Depression following the 1929 Stock Market Crash, when Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican incumbent President Herbert Hoover in 1932, and subsequently began implementing his "New Deal" to put people back to work and pull them out of the economic doldrums, the die was then cast for laborers to maintain an affinity for FDR in general, and his pre-worker economic agenda, specifically. 

In 1935, FDR signed the National Labor Relations Act into law, an initiative that protected union organizing and contracts while establishing the National Labor Relations Board, a vehicle which ensured collective bargaining rights in the private sector. Thus, from that point forward, labor unions generally held that the Democratic Party was most loyal to the rights of workers, while Republicans, generally speaking, sided with management/ownership of major corporations. 

FDR signing the Wagner National Labor Relations Act in 1935

Now, it is easy for me to understand why the Teamsters refused to endorse Donald Trump when considering that the self proclaimed "Billionaire" made his celebrity bones as the host of "The Apprentice," a show in which "you're fired," as exclaimed by Trump himself each week, was it's primary selling point. Couple that with the fact that earlier this summer, patrician Trump sat with his fellow patrician, Elon Musk, and joked about how many jobs the latter had cut at Twitter and his other holdings, and one can see how the Union’s leadership refused to choose an ally in the latest corporation loving GOP presidential aspirant no matter what the membership preferred in its internal survey.

But the lack of support for Kamala Harris is curious at best when she has served capably as vice president to the same man that the Teamsters endorsed in 2020—President Joe Biden? Teamsters head Sean O'Brien said in a prepared statement 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."

Teamsters President O’Brien received a frosty reception while speaking at the Republican Convention in July (above), but he wasn't even invited to speak at the Democratic Convention the following month? 🤔

Yeah, ok Mr. O'Brien, but what specifically has Harris done (or not done), said (or not said) to make the Teamsters board reticent to line up with the Democratic nominee per usual? 

Unfortunately, the Teamsters have yet to provide a list of specific grievances with Ms. Harris, but it did release the data from a survey that it mailed to its 1.3 million members asking which candidate they preferred in this year's election. The results:

Donald Trump 64%

Kamala Harris 36%

Now, if your mind works like mine, then you're probably wondering what the Teamsters internal polling would have revealed had President Biden remained in the race? At this point, not only is such impossible to tell, but it is also moot because Biden is out—and Harris is in it—for the long haul. 

But I still harbor a suspicion, let's call it a "tremor in the Force" that stirs my Jedi instincts, that over two-thirds of the responding Teamsters may believe that they were better off financially when Trump was in office! To be clear, I don't think that such is a racial issue when considering that Barack Obama twice secured the Union's endorsement, nor do I think that it is gender based when considering that Hillary Clinton secured the same right after Obama in 2016.

Rather, I sense that the Teamsters rank-and-file may be feeling the pinches on wallets in the form of inflation making everything more costly—while wages remain stagnant—and, right or wrong, affixing the blame for these Covid and post Covid price gouges on the Biden-Harris Administration.  To that end, even Trump couldn't help but call today's Teamsters decision a "victory" when considering how closely aligned the Union has historically been with the Democratic Party. 

Nevertheless, what's done is done, and as we are fewer than 50 days away from the general election, VP Harris will surely continue to press the argument to ALL workers across the country as to why her administration will align with their rights more consistently than a Republican Party which remains on the heaux stroll for Big Corporate interests across America. Here's hoping that those Union members and their families who would benefit the most from her presidency are willing to listen...