AOC attack on Teamsters leader shows unions still matter in elections

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was none too pleased with the Teamsters disapproval and expressed displeasure with the leadership of union president Sean O’Brien.

“I’m very disappointed in Sean O’Brien’s leadership,” the New York Democratic lawmaker told CNN’s Manu Raju last week. “I found it more and more alarming all year.”

“When the Teamsters are in trouble, who do they turn to when we need to make sure Teamsters pensions are saved?…Sean O’Brien called Democrats for help,” she continued.

Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks reveal how much unions will matter in this election — especially with organizing and turnout efforts. And the Teamsters’ back-to-back decision only intensified efforts by both sides to make their case to the rank-and-file.

The Teamsters split

O’Brien told The Hill last week that the Teamsters would not endorse Harris or Trump because the union “couldn’t get commitments on our issues” from either candidate.

In a CNN interview, O’Brien responded to Ocasio-Cortez, saying the congresswoman “should go into her district where she voted far-right Republican.”

O’Brien was referring to what he said were union membership poll results in the 14th Congressional District, where he said members overwhelmingly support Trump.

When Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee earlier this year, he led Trump in in-person polls among members (44.3 percent to 36.3 percent), according to the Teamsters. But in a national electronic poll that ran from July 24 to Sept. 15, Trump held an edge (59.6 percent to 34 percent) over Harris among union members.

In a separate union poll, Trump also led Harris — this time 58 percent to 31 percent.

O’Brien later said of Ocasio-Cortez, “She might want to focus on her job instead of mine.”

Shortly after O’Brien’s CNN interview, Ocasio-Cortez hit back at the union leader, arguing that Teamsters in her district were aligned behind Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“The NY-14 Teamsters mentioned here did indeed vote overwhelmingly to support Harris-Walz. As did Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania,” she told X. “It’s a big thing to deceive us about. set the record straight: Teamsters Local 202 are all in for Harris.”

The congresswoman attached a letter from Teamsters Local Union no. 202 of New York, in which the executive board “unanimously” supports Harris and Walz.

After O’Brien’s announcement last week, scores of regional Teamsters councils — which include thousands of members and retirees in key states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — threw their support behind Harris.

The Upper Midwest will be critical in November

James P. Hoffa, who served as Teamsters president for 23 years before his retirement in 2022, said in a statement that not endorsing the union was a “critical mistake.”

“There is only one candidate in this race who has supported working families and unions throughout their careers,” he said. “And this is Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Trump, who is trying to win over more union members this year, took a victory lap after O’Brien’s announcement.

“The Teamsters carry a lot of weight,” the former president told reporters last week. “Democrats can’t believe it. Look, it was always automatic for the Democrats to get the Teamsters and they said, ‘We’re not going to support the Democrats this year,’ so that was an honor for me.”

The tug of union support reflects the high stakes for both candidates, particularly in the Upper Midwest, where organized labor has long been a robust political force.

In 2016, Trump won the presidency in part because of his appeal to a critical bloc of households in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all swing states that are essential parts of the Democratic “blue wall.”

The former president won all three states that year, but Biden flipped them in the blue column in 2020.

This year, both Trump and Harris are aiming to win these battleground states, with the former president expressing support for protectionist trade measures and the Democratic nominee noting that her staunch support for labor would mirror his Biden if he won the White House.