Local Teamsters unions in key battleground states endorse Harris

Local unions within the International Brotherhood of Teamsters are putting their support behind Vice President Harris in November, despite the wider union’s decision to withhold a presidential endorsement this year.

“Michigan Teamsters President Kevin Moore and the Executive Board on behalf of 245,000 active and retired Teamsters enthusiastically endorse the Harris-Walz campaign,” Kevin D. Moore, president of the Michigan Teamsters Joint Council No. 43, said Wednesday in a document posted to Facebook.

“We strongly support their continued commitment to the issues that matter most to working families and our nation’s middle class,” Moore continued. “Both Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz have consistently demonstrated their dedication to championing the labor movement, safeguarding social security, and ensuring access to quality healthcare for all Americans, including women’s reproductive rights.”

Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien told The Hill on Wednesday that his union didn’t back Harris or former President Trump “because both candidates didn’t commit on the core issues that we need to get accomplished on behalf of our members.”

Other unions that got behind the vice president’s bid include Teamsters Joint Council 42. According to the local union’s website, it “represents 23 Teamsters Union Locals located in Southern California, Southern Nevada, Guam, Saipan and Hawaii.”

“The 300,000 Teamsters who work across California, Nevada, Hawaii, and Guam are fundamental to the American economy, not only producing and transporting goods, but also providing essential services throughout the private and public sectors,” Joint Council 42 President Chris Griswold said in a post on its Facebook page. “They deserve a committed administration that will relentlessly advocate for their rights, ensure their safety, and prioritize the needs of working people.” 

Harris’s bid for the presidency likely hinges on her ability to capture a handful of battleground states like Michigan and Nevada. According to the polling average from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, she is leading Trump 48.6 percent to 47.2 percent in the Wolverine State. In the Silver State, the Democratic nominee is ahead 47.8 percent to her GOP rival’s 46.5 percent, the polling index found.

Harris’s campaign referenced the endorsements from the local unions in a press release Wednesday, also stating that the vice president “has received the overwhelming support of organized labor because, while she has spent her entire career championing labor, Donald Trump celebrated firing striking workers and his Project 2025 agenda would fundamentally undermine the right to organize.”

The Hill has reached out to the Teamsters.