Vice President Kamala Harris has suffered another major political setback, and it’s one that her campaign, quite frankly, couldn’t afford. On Thursday, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) announced it will not endorse any candidate in this year’s presidential election, making it the second major union to take this position in recent weeks. The IAFF had previously given strong support to Joe Biden in 2020, being one of the first unions to back his candidacy.
The IAFF executive board revealed in a statement that its members voted against endorsing a candidate in the race between former President Donald Trump and Harris, with the decision made by a narrow margin of 1.2 percentage points.
“Over the past year, the IAFF took unprecedented steps to hear our members’ views on the candidates and the policy issues that matter most to them,” union President Edward Kelly said following the board’s decision. “As we have over our 106-year history, the IAFF will continue its work to improve the lives of fire fighters and their families,” Kelly added. “The IAFF Executive Board determined that we are better able to advocate for our members and make progress on the issues that matter to them if we, as a union, are standing shoulder-to-shoulder. This decision, which we took very seriously, is the best way to preserve and strengthen our unity.”
This decision marks a significant shift from the union’s political stance leading up to the 2020 election. During that election cycle, the IAFF endorsed Joe Biden in April 2019, well before the Democratic Party primary gained momentum. Additionally, Biden addressed the union’s 2023 legislative conference, assuring members that he was committed to supporting them.
Last month, another major union decided not to back Harris. Over the summer, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien made history as the first leader in the organization’s 121-year existence to address the Republican National Convention, but in mid-September, he unveiled compelling polling data from within the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in a public release. Traditionally supportive of Democratic candidates, the union—one of the nation’s largest—drew significant attention with an unexpected development.
“We’ve done some research-based polling that we will be presenting to the general executive board, all three of those polling models, on Wednesday. And then we’ll deliberate, and a decision will be made then,” O’Brien said at the time. “We don’t just represent registered Democrats, we represent registered Republicans and independents, so we have to take [that] into consideration.” The Teamsters Union, officially known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), is one of North America’s oldest, largest and most influential labor unions.
According to survey data released by the union, Trump held a significant advantage over Harris among Teamsters members as the union considers its presidential endorsement. The online poll revealed that nearly 60 percent of participating members favored Trump, while 34 percent supported Harris. A simultaneous phone survey confirmed these findings, with Trump garnering 58 percent of the support compared to Harris’s 31 percent. That said, the union wound up not endorsing anyone, but that was seen as a much more significant blow to Harris than Trump.
Harris’s significantly lower support among Teamsters members also raises concerns that other blue-collar unions may share similar doubts about her, despite their organizations officially endorsing her, Politico noted.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.