New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in a war of words with Teamsters leader Sean O’Brien after the union refused to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in November’s election. Writing on social media, the Democrat stated that O’Brien had promoted Republicans while the Vice President voted to “save Teamster pensions nationwide.” Ocasio-Cortez urged Teamster members to join with union chapters who have thrown their weight behind the Harris-Walz campaign.
California, Nevada, Hawaii, and Guam Teamsters posted their Harris endorsement on Twitter, saying the Vice President was committed to their values, including access to affordable healthcare, strong pensions, and strengthening the middle class. Nevertheless, national leader O’Brien recently confirmed that he will not endorse either Presidential candidate. He hit back at Ocasio-Cortez’s criticisms and told her to get her own house in order and “focus on her job instead of mine.”
Mr. O’Brien’s failure to endorse Harris will likely not surprise some observers, given his appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee earlier this year. He told the conference that his union is not “beholden” to any party and, in later comments, said neither candidate had sufficiently addressed the top concerns of union members. His critics, however, say Harris strongly supports the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, whereas Trump does not, and JD Vance has explicitly stated that he opposes it.
Nevertheless, data from the union, which has over a million members, suggests that more members support Trump than Harris, making it inappropriate for the leadership to throw its weight behind the Vice President. “Democrats, Republicans, and Independents proudly call our union home, and we have a duty to represent and respect every one of them,” a statement read.
The refusal to offer a national endorsement prompted some local chapters to break ranks, including in battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Bill Carroll, head of the Wisconsin branch, acknowledged that “some” of the state’s 15,000 Teamsters backed Trump, but the leadership endorsed Harris because Republicans had not taken “any kind of action” that would benefit organized labor. Pennsylvania’s Teamster offered their endorsement to the Vice President in August. Richard Hooker Jr. of the Philadelphia Teamsters said swing states needed to support Harris “to really show our members where we stand as labor.”
