Teamsters union leaders support Republicans despite members endorsing Democratic candidates

The powerful Teamsters union is backing Republican candidates in the 2026 election cycle even after members have voted to support their Democrat opponents.

The 1.3 million-strong union’s president, Sean O’Brien, angered many members and union leaders in 2024 when he became the first union president to speak at the Republican national convention (RNC).

The latest moves by the union’s leadership are further stoking tensions within the union.

“The Republicans have done nothing but take a gun to our head at every turn. And why we think that we can somehow change their behavior, I don’t understand it. It’s not a logical argument,” said John Palmer, who was elected on O’Brien’s slate in 2021 as an at-large vice-president on the Teamsters executive board, but who broke ranks in criticizing O’Brien’s RNC appearance in 2024. “I live in Texas. I’m a moderate guy, but I know when somebody’s trying to cut my throat.”

The national union declined to make an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election for the first time since 1996, claiming a majority of members supported Trump after they supported Biden in 2020, though Teamsters locals and councils representing 1 million members at the union independently endorsed Harris.

So far this election cycle, O’Brien has made two personal contributions – both to Republicans.

O’Brien donated $1,000 to the Republican US Senate campaign of Scott Brown in New Hampshire on 19 February 2026. Brown appeared on O’Brien’s podcast, Better Bad Ideas, on 25 February.

The only Teamsters’ local in New Hampshire, Teamsters Local 633, endorsed Brown’s Democratic rival Chris Pappas for the Senate race in April 2025. Teamsters Local 633 did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

O’Brien also made a $1,000 donation in May 2025 to another Republican, Markwayne Mullin, now Trump’s secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. The two have clashed spectacularly in the past.

During a US Senate hearing in November 2023, Mullin challenged O’Brien to a fight while reading aloud social media posts made by O’Brien that were critical of Mullin. After Trump’s 2024 election win, Mullin and O’Brien publicly made amends during Lori Chavez Deremer’s confirmation hearings for secretary of labor in February 2025.

Teamsters local members and the Teamsters leadership are differing on endorsements in several key races.

In April, the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters voted by a voice vote to endorse Paige Cognetti, Scranton Democratic mayor, in her congressional race in Pennsylvania’s eighth congressional district.

“As mayor, Paige has taken on special interests and fought for reform. She turned down a [city-issued] car, eliminated cash payments and cut costs, leading to budget surpluses and a credit rating that went from junk to investment grade,” Bill Hamilton, president of the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters, said at the state union’s annual meeting where they endorsed Cognetti.

But the Teamsters’ political action committee (PAC) subsequently endorsed Rob Bresnahan, a Republican congressman, following a $5,000 donation to his campaign in May 2026. Bresnahan appeared on O’Brien’s podcast in January 2026.

Following the endorsement, Hamilton released a statement backing Bresnahan. “Rep. Bresnahan has always had our backs, particularly when he played a critical role in the successful bipartisan push to pass the Faster Labor Contracts Act in the House of Representatives,” Hamilton said in a statement in June 2026, which did not address his conflicting endorsement of Cognetti. “The Teamsters support candidates who support us regardless of their party affiliation, and for that reason Robert Bresnahan has our unwavering endorsement.” Hamilton did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In August, O’Brien visited the congressional district and added an endorsement of his own for Bresnahan.

In June, O’Brien announced the Teamsters’ were endorsing Chris Swanson for governor of Michigan. He lost easily in the Democratic primary to Jocelyn Benson, who had received endorsements from Teamsters Locals 283, 406, 243, 1038, 247 and 337 in Michigan, the majority of the union’s locals in the state.

The Teamsters have also thrown their weight behind Max Miller, Ohio’s beleaguered Republican congressman. Miller has faced resignation calls from his own party over domestic abuse allegations and has argued in court filings that allegations made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, daughter of Republican US Senator Bernie Moreno, have cost him union support in his re-election bid against ironworker Brian Poindexter.

Miller was among 16 congressional Republicans who met with O’Brien at a roundtable discussion in November 2024, as the Teamsters under O’Brien have refrained from criticizing actions by the Trump administration that have been opposed by the majority of the largest labor unions in the US.

In July 2026, the Ohio Conference of Teamsters announced its endorsements, which included Miller, citing his vote for the union-backed Faster Labor Contracts Act, though Miller’s lifetime voting score on labor issues is rated at 14% by the AFL-CIO. The Ohio Conference of Teamsters did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

O’Brien’s controversial 2024 appearance at the RNC marked a shift from his rhetoric when he ran to lead the union in 2021, when he called Trump “our enemy” and criticized the previous Teamsters leadership for not doing enough to stand up to Trump’s first administration.

O’Brien defended the appearance at the RNC as the union has since shifted toward supporting more Republicans, even as the Trump administration has taken several actions undermining labor unions and collective bargaining rights, including an ongoing attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights for over 1 million federal workers

O’Brien faced an attempted challenge to his leadership earlier this year, but the slate of candidates failed to receive the 5% of delegates required to make the ballot. O’Brien’s slate was then re-elected, unopposed, to another five-year term.

O’Brien and the Teamsters did not respond to multiple requests for comment.