CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — The head of the Teamsters union will speak at next month’s Republican convention as Donald Trump seeks to undermine President Joe Biden’s support among workers expected to play a major role in the general election, particularly in crucial Midwestern swing states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Sean O’Brien “accepted my invitation to speak at the RNC convention in Milwaukee.”
Teamsters spokeswoman Kara Deniz said Friday that O’Brien had asked for a speaking slot at both major party conventions and accepted Trump’s invitation to the RNC. It would be the first time a Teamsters president would speak at a Republican event.
Democratic convention planners said Friday that no final decisions had been made on programming for the August event.
“We are organizing a convention in Chicago that will tell our story to the American people, including the stories of the union leaders and workers that President Biden has championed as the most pro-union president in modern history,” party spokesman Matt Hill told The Associated Press.
Trump is trying to build Biden’s support among unions ahead of the general election as he tries to win over the workers who helped him win in 2016. Union members tend to vote Democrat, with 56% of members and households supporting Biden in 2020, according to AP VoteCast.
In September, as his Republican rivals met for a debate, Trump traveled to Michigan and tried to win over autoworkers by sharply criticizing Biden’s push for electric vehicles in the midst of a strike. During his speech, Trump urged the United Auto Workers to support him, appealing directly to union president Shawn Fain – even though he was speaking at a non-union auto parts plant.
Fain instead called Trump a “strikebreaker,” a derogatory term for workers who break union picket lines and work during a strike, when he endorsed Biden. In January, Trump called on UAW members to oust Fain after the group endorsed Biden.
O’Brien has since met privately with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club, where the two discussed issues such as right-to-work laws that allow union members to be exempt from paying dues and fees. After a roundtable with Teamsters leaders in January, Trump called the event a “very productive meeting” and acknowledged that the union usually supports Democrats. But regarding the possibility of support, he said, “Stranger things have happened.”
O’Brien later described the conversation with Trump as “pleasant” and “direct,” but said the union was still far from making a decision. After meeting with Biden in March, O’Brien said the president had been “great” for workers, but stressed that there was “still a lot of work to do” to strengthen unions.
Biden – who has long billed himself as the most pro-labor president in history and even marched at a picket line in the Detroit area during the auto workers’ strike last fall – has already garnered significant support from unions, including the AFL-CIO and others. But Trump hopes to undermine that support by portraying himself as pro-labor and trying to exacerbate the divide between union leaders and some rank-and-file members.
The Teamsters union represents 1.3 million workers, including UPS drivers, film and television workers, freight carriers, police officers and other government employees.
It endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, although O’Brien has stressed that the union is open to endorsement proposals this election cycle. The group generally waits to make a formal endorsement until after both parties’ nominating conventions in the summer and will “most likely” do so again this year after polling its members, gathering grassroots input and reconvening its leadership team, O’Brien said.
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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
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You can reach Meg Kinnard at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
