Kamala Harris is first Democrat in decades to not get Teamsters endorsement Vice President Kamala Harris is the first Democrat in over two decades to not secure the Teamsters union endorsement. The union, representing over 1.3 million members, has endorsed Democratic candidates for president for over 20 years. However, in a statement released on Wednesday, the union said it will not endorse any presidential candidate in the 2024 election. This is the first time the union has not endorsed a presidential candidate since 1996.
Another take: Teamsters leadership refused to endorse Trump despite Trump's support from a majority (58%) of Teamsters.. It’s a contradictory dynamic considering Pubs are anti-union..
Their polling had a majority for Biden back before he dropped out, so you gotta kinda wonder what explanation there is other than the obvious lol
I think this is the first time in almost 30 years the Teamsters Union hasn't endorsed the Dem candidate, so I wasn't really counting on them to endorse Trump. I expected them to endorse Harris. You know, like everyone else did.
Old news. Teamsters are low information voters. There is no one less friendly to unions than a Trump GOP but knuckle draggers feel out of place in the Democratic Party these days. Dec 2023 article: Biden won the Teamsters endorsement in 2020. It’s not a sure bet in 2024.
Each member will vote the way they want, so while the money will go to the Dems, while most of the votes will go to Trump. Either way... it's all about the votes.
9 of 10 national Labor unions have endorsed Harris. And just minutes after the national Teamsters endorsed neither, the West Coast Teamsters endorsed Kamala, so she has about 9 and a 1/3 out of 10 endorsements. Either way, Pubs are anti-union so they shouldn't care, right?
One teamster local breaks from the National union to back Harris. They credit her with casting the vote to save their pensions.
More than 1 has endorsed her: Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams said on social media that Harris had earned the endorsement of Teamsters Joint Council 43 in Michigan, Teamsters Joint Council 39 in Wisconsin, and Teamsters Joint Council 7 and Joint Council 42, which represent 300,000 members across California, Hawaii, Guam and battleground Nevada. New York will soon as well. Harris racks up regional endorsements from Teamsters locals
Does this stuff matter? Would any of you change your vote because the company you work for publicly endorsed a candidate?
A lot of it is money and people power. The unions help tremendously with GOTV efforts. Someone needs a ride to the polls, doors need to knocked, phone calls need to be made-- unions have traditionally been a great help. They also often have space available for meetings for trainings for volunteers. The Republicans use churches. The Democrats use union halls.
I would say the vast majority of endorsements don't matter. Union rank and file are free to vote for whoever they want, and its not uncommon for leadership to be at odds with some of their members on who to endorse, if anyone. Unlike other endorsements though, union locals do still have a lot of GOTV capacity (one reason conservatives are hostile to unions). Generally an endorsement comes with some kind of manpower commitment to the candidate in terms of volunteering. Also while not endorsing, the national union will probably still donate money to both candidates.
