President Joe Biden is on the brink of failing to win a key labor endorsement as leaders of the 1.3 million-member Teamsters union consider backing no candidate at all in the U.S. presidential race, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters decision has not been finalized and is expected to be made in the coming weeks.
A Teamsters endorsement for Republican candidate Donald Trump appears unlikely, sources say, but deep internal divisions mean the union may not back any candidate at all. That would mark the first time since 1996, according to news reports.
Since his halting performance in a presidential debate on June 27, Biden has already seen a number of lawmakers and donors ask him to stand aside, worried about his ability to get reelected and to serve another four-year term. Some allies say they believe Saturday’s Trump assassination attempt could quiet those calls, but other Democrats doubt that.
Biden’s team once viewed the Teamsters endorsement as all but inevitable and still counts a number of senior leaders there as supporters. But months of deteriorating relations and rising concerns about Biden’s political endurance have soured sentiment among some of the leaders at the union, which represents workers in fields ranging from trucking to manufacturing and office work.
“No final decision has been made,” said Kara Deniz, a spokesperson for the Teamsters, adding that any reporting that suggests an outcome is speculative.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday night, where he offered no endorsement but thanked Trump profusely for opening the convention doors to him. He praised the former president as tough and attacked Washington as being run in a way that hurts working people.
He also praised Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance as one of several lawmakers that “truly care about working people.”
“We are not beholden to anyone or any party,” O’Brien said on stage, as Trump watched.
“The Teamsters are not interested if you have a ‘D,’ ‘R’ or an ‘I’ next your name. We want to know one thing: what are you doing to help American workers?”
O’Brien is not yet scheduled to speak at the Democratic convention in August.
The Teamsters leader had reached out simultaneously to the Democratic and Republican national committees to speak at their conventions but only heard back from Republicans, Deniz told Reuters.
A person familiar with the planning of the Democratic convention said no final decisions had been made about their programming.
“We are building a convention in Chicago that will tell our story to the American people, including the stories of labor and union leaders and workers that President Biden has been delivering for as the most pro-union president in modern history,” said convention spokesperson Matt Hill.
