By In a revealing interview on The Tucker Carlson Show, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien explained why the powerful labor union decided not to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time since 1996. O’Brien described a series of interactions with Vice President Kamala Harris that he felt displayed a dismissive attitude toward the union’s concerns.
The Teamsters, one of the largest and most politically active unions in the United States, announced in September that they would remain neutral in the 2024 presidential election. This decision followed months of strained communication with Democratic leadership, including a tense encounter between Harris and a member of the Teamsters’ executive board, according to The Daily Caller.
During a meet-and-greet event, O’Brien recounted how Harris addressed Joan Corey, a member of the union’s executive board, in a way he perceived as presumptuous and dismissive. According to O’Brien, Harris said to Corey, “Teamsters? You better get on board. Better get on board soon.”
O’Brien expressed frustration over Harris’ approach, emphasizing that such interactions fail to build trust or cooperation. Reflecting on the incident, he told former U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, “If I want support from any organization, I am not gonna point my finger in someone’s face and say, ‘You better get on board or else.’”
Tensions escalated further during a roundtable discussion Harris attended with union members. According to O’Brien, Harris seemed unwilling to fully engage with rank-and-file Teamsters, answering only a few of the planned 16 questions before her staff ended the meeting early. As the discussion concluded, Harris reportedly said, “I’m gonna win with you or without you.”
Teamsters president Sean O’Brien on Kamala Harris: “Who does this f*cking lady think she is?” pic.twitter.com/U3RaaUzxVK
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 24, 2024
Despite the Teamsters’ longstanding alignment with Democratic candidates, internal polling showed a notable shift in member preferences. Two union-conducted surveys indicated that nearly 60 percent of Teamsters favored endorsing former President Donald Trump, while only about 31 percent supported Harris.
Following the poll, the Teamsters announced that they will not be endorsing anyone for president.
“The General Executive Board of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Wednesday elected not to endorse any candidate for U.S. President.
After reviewing six months of nationwide member polling and wrapping up nearly a year of rank-and-file roundtable interviews with all major candidates for the presidency, the union was left with few commitments on top Teamsters issues from either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris—and found no definitive support among members for either party’s nominee.”
The statement also revealed how biased union leadership still is for Democrats and proved that Harris couldn’t win the backing with the lowest possible standard set for her. The General Executive Board wrote that “the union’s extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump.”
Harris became one of the only Democrats to not win the endorsement of the Teamsters in over 100 years.
The Teamsters’ decision to withhold their endorsement reflected a deeper tension growing between the Democratic Party and labor organizations, something. NBC News reported that “while unions say their extensive organizing efforts helped Democrats largely hold the line with their members — Vice President Kamala Harris’ support among union households this year was slightly down from Biden’s in 2020, according to NBC News exit polling — the party’s erosion among working-class voters more generally is alarming.
‘I don’t think the party has fully embraced, and hasn’t for decades, really, working-class people,” said Brent Booker, the general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America. “We have to deconstruct and reconstruct the Democratic Party if they’re going to be the party of working people.’
‘We can’t communicate with every nonunion laborer. We can only communicate with a portion of our members,” said Booker, who thinks Democrats could have performed better with a fierier populist message on the economy and a cooler one on cultural issues that make some of his members feel like Democrats are out-of-touch elitists. “A lot of our members own guns. A lot of our members hunt.’
Booker said that when he toured job sites this year, he heard about inflation, immigration and the demise of the Keystone Pipeline, which would have created jobs for his members but was killed for environmental concerns — all issues that played to the GOP’s favor.”
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