The Teamsters Union is reportedly donating to battleground Republicans as the midterms approach, the news coming after the group supported Democrats for years, according to Politico.
It is important to note that Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien gave a historic address to the Republican National Convention (RNC) in 2024 after President Donald Trump invited him to the event, Breitbart News reported at the time.
“President Trump had the backbone to open the doors to this Republican convention, and that’s unprecedented. No other nominee in the race would’ve invited the Teamsters into this arena. Now you can have whatever opinion you want, but one thing is clear: President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud, and often critical voices,” he said during his speech.
According to the Politico article published on Monday, O’Brien is “signaling a more permanent realignment” in the form of donations going to Republicans:
For the second year in a row, the labor union’s political arm donated to the Republicans’ House campaign arm after nearly two decades of mostly backing Democrats. The labor union’s D.R.I.V.E political action committee — Democrat, Republican, Independent Voter Education — gave the National Republican Congressional Committee $5,000 in the second quarter.
In addition to giving to the NRCC, Teamsters doled out a combined $62,000 in contributions to nearly two-dozen GOP congressional candidates, including in significant battleground districts.
A Teamsters spokesperson told the outlet its members are “working people whose interests cut across party lines. And there’s no value in living in a bubble … where you only talk to certain people to the exclusion of others.”
Despite the shift, the group still gives more money to Democrats, the Politico report said.
In February 2024, NBC News reported, “The Teamsters’ political action committee broke decades of precedent last month when the union leadership voted to approve a $45,000 donation to the Republican National Committee’s convention fund.”
In September, the Teamsters said it would not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election even though polling showed the majority of its members backed Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris (D), according to Breitbart News.
