If you want to know where a union really stands, ignore the press conferences and public appearances, instead, follow the money.
This cycle, Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien has worked hard to look like the Republican Party's newest friend. He stood with Rep. Mike Lawler in New York. He endorsed Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas. Two days before Election Day, he posted that he was proud to cast his Florida ballot for Sen. Ashley Moody.
No Teamsters financial support went to Sen. Moody or Sen. Marshall this cycle. Meanwhile, Teamsters' PAC, DRIVE, was sending checks to the two biggest Democratic super PACs fighting for control of Congress: $300,000 to Senate Majority PAC in September and $500,000 to House Majority PAC in October.
That's $800,000 aimed at handing Chuck Schumer the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries the Speaker's gavel.
O'Brien endorsed Marshall on September 3. Two weeks later, DRIVE sent $300,000 to the super PAC whose whole purpose is flipping Republican Senate seats. Then on October 6, DRIVE gave half a million dollars to House Majority PAC, the group that exists to defeat House Republicans like Mike Lawler. Sixteen days after that, O'Brien was standing next to Lawler calling him a friend of labor.
Republicans got the photo op. Democrats got the money.
As former DHS official and Ohio Republican Tricia McLaughlin said it best: "Not at all surprised by this kind of deception by the union bosses & O'Brien." She's right not to be surprised. Back in July, the Ohio Conference of Teamsters endorsed Sherrod Brown for Senate in a state President Trump has won three times.
None of this is new. As CPAW has documented, the Teamsters sent 92% of their political contributions to Democrats in 2024, 97.5% in 2022, and 97% in 2020. Since 1990, Republicans have never gotten more than 16% of the union's federal contributions in a single cycle. The union's leaders change their talking points. The checks keep going to the same place.
So why the act? Because O'Brien knows his members have already moved. In 2024, union households broke for President Trump in record numbers, and the Teamsters' own internal polling showed a majority of members wanted a Trump endorsement over Kamala Harris. Truck drivers and warehouse workers aren't buying the far-left agenda their union leaders have funded for decades. So leadership gives them a show: a rally here, a tweet there, a Republican on a stage. Behind the curtain, the real political machine keeps funding the Democrats.
These efforts of union leadership keeps members quiet and gets Republicans to treat a Democratic money operation like a swing voter. It also gets the Teamsters a seat at the table on bills like the Faster Labor Contracts Act while the union's PAC money works to put Democrats back in charge of those same committees.
Republicans need to stop falling for it. The Teamsters leadership is not an emerging partner of the America First movement. It's a Democratic resource dressed up as one. A union that praises you on Thursday and funds your opponents' super PAC on Tuesday is not your ally. Treat it like what it is.
Rank-and-file Teamsters deserve the truth too. Those are their dues going toward political contributions for candidates who don’t represent their values. These dues are from hardworking members who voted for President Trump in huge numbers and expected their union to respect that. Instead, their money is going to the same Democratic operatives working to elect the far-left radicals who want to focus on far-left social issues, raise their taxes, make their energy more expensive, and undo the agenda they voted for.
The Teamsters can rally with whoever they want. Their checks show where they really stand. Every Teamster should know where their dues are going, and every Republican should keep that in mind the next time Sean O'Brien comes asking for a favor.