The Teamsters’ choice this week not to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris has Democrats worried their candidate is losing support among white working-class voters, Politico reported.
A pro-Harris union official called the lack of endorsement a “red flag,” recalling how former Republican president Donald Trump outperformed expectations among union members in 2016, defeating Hillary Clinton.
“Hard not to have HRC flashbacks right now, to be honest, that stuff might be wrong beneath the surface,” the official said. “I hope it’s not.”
Although the Teamsters declined to endorse either candidate, their internal membership polling found that a strong majority—59.6 percent to 34 percent—wanted the union to endorse Trump. The rank-and-file support for Trump has Democratic leaders worried the former president could sweep the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin as he did in 2016.
Labor leaders in other sectors confirmed that, similar to 2016 and 2020, Trump has won over significant parts of their membership.
“Candidly, Trump has a solid, solid base of working-class people that have bought into his message,” said Jimmy Williams, president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which has endorsed Harris. “It’s movable, and it’s been moving. But it’s not like some tide that’s turned.”
Other Democrats told Politico the vice president still has ground to cover in order to win back old, white working-class voters who have struggled under the Biden-Harris administration’s weak economy.
A Thursday survey from Emerson College Polling and the Hill found that Trump has a slight lead over Harris in both Pennsylvania, 48 percent to 47 percent, and Wisconsin, 49 percent to 48 percent.
The Teamsters, one of the country’s largest unions, has historically supported Democratic candidates for president. The lack of endorsement makes Harris the first Democratic presidential candidate not to receive the union’s backing since 1996, when the union declined to endorse candidates Bill Clinton and Robert Dole.
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