Harris to meet with key union for high-stakes endorsement interview

Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Monday to court a last-minute presidential endorsement from the union, amid lingering resentment among some members for its overtures to her rival Donald Trump.

The suspense around the decision has brought outsized attention to the 1.3 million-member union for an announcement that typically comes after both party conventions — and typically goes to the Democratic nominee.

Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien initiated the union’s first-ever roundtable interview process for the 2024 endorsement last December and invited candidates from both parties and independents to make their pitch for the union’s backing. But the drawn-out process means the Teamsters have far less time to promote its endorsement and organize union members and their households to turn out to vote.

“The sooner the better,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said of a possible Teamsters endorsement in a brief interview on Capitol Hill.

O’Brien has insisted that it’s been beneficial to have candidates make their pitch directly to the Teamsters, and he made history as the first Teamsters president to address a Republican National Convention. Trump met with the Teamsters in January and then-presumptive nominee President Joe Biden had his interview in March.

But O’Brien also drew the ire of his membership and a fellow executive board member — and added uncertainty over the union’s endorsement — for his appearance at the Republican convention, where he was complimentary to GOP lawmakers and ripped on corporate America. Democrats snubbed O’Brien’s request for a speaking role at their convention.

He later accused Trump of “economic terrorism” after the former president spoke favorably of firing workers who go on strike, in an interview with business mogul Elon Musk.

The Teamsters communications office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Most other major unions endorsed Biden early in the campaign season, and quickly transferred their support to Harris after Biden dropped out of the race. The AFL-CIO, which hosts 60 unions and almost 13 million members, launched what it called its “largest-ever voter mobilization effort” before Labor Day.

The United Auto Workers initiated its own digital and field operation in battleground states in mid-August, including a door-to-door outreach program staffed by about one million current and retired UAW workers. According to the UAW’s statistics, in just Michigan, about 9 percent of Biden’s votes came from UAW members in 2020.

And even the Teamsters National Black Caucus, a volunteer-run cohort, stepped ahead of the national office by endorsing Harris before the Democratic National Convention and started its grassroots work soon after.

“As the chair of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, my thoughts and my vision and the executive board’s vision was that we needed to get out with less than 90 days left to get some boots on the ground and start having some conversations with members and take a stand,” James Curbeam said in an interview with POLITICO.

The caucus’ pitch is focused on reaching rank-and-file members, their households and their friends, informing them on what the organization sees as pro-worker commitments from Harris and an anti-union record on Trump’s part.

Curbeam said certain appointments to the National Labor Relations Board during Trump’s administration and his picking Jeff Sessions to be attorney general were significant obstacles to labor organizing. Curbeam also criticized recent rhetoric from Trump that pits Black workers against immigrants.

But like other union leaders, he’s concerned about Trump’s appeal to rank-and-file members.

“We have some younger folks that feel like Trump has done something for the Black community. We have some folks that want to talk about the stimulus checks when Trump was in office,” Curbeam said of conversations he’s already had with members.

An internal straw poll at the beginning of the summer showed that more than one-third of Teamsters members were planning to vote for Trump while about 45 percent were supporting Biden.

For the divided membership, the endorsement from the D.C. office is not a mandate as much as a guideline for voters. Convincing rank-and-file members of the merits of an endorsement tends to happen in conversations like the ones Curbeam outlined.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who’s made his own overtures to labor, doubts that the Teamsters’ post-endorsement organizing will change most voters’ minds about the presidential race.

“If you don’t have an opinion on Donald Trump, I mean — who doesn’t have any opinion on Donald Trump,” Hawley said. “A Teamsters endorsement for Trump would absolutely matter, I think, but it’s not as if you’ve never heard of him. ‘Like you should really check out this guy named Trump.’ No, they all know who he is. So I don’t know if it’s as important. You’re not starting from zero.”

There are warning signs about Harris’ appeal to working-class voters. A recent New York Times/Siena College survey poll shows her 17 points behind Trump among voters without a college degree. A Pew Research Center post-election analysis of the 2020 results showed Biden was only behind Trump by 8 points with these voters.

Harris also has the least support from white, male voters without a college degree, according to a recent survey from Pew — though the Teamsters membership is far from monolithic and membership is growing among people of color and women.

Some Democrats see union endorsements as an important way of making inroads with that cohort.

“When we look at the union vote, that’s what’s saving us,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who added that a late Teamsters endorsement could be good timing for undecided voters. “We’re not doing well in general with men without college degrees, but we’re doing much better with union voters.”