Two weeks ago the Teamsters Union announced that they would not endorse a presidential candidate this year for the first time since 1996, after internal polling revealed that 58% of its members back Trump vs. 31% for Harris.

Today, the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) – which was the first major union to endorse Joe Biden in the 2020 election – became the second major union to abstain from endorsing a candidate, after taking “unprecedented steps to hear our members’ views on the candidates and the policy issues that matter most to them.”

A statement from @IAFFPresident following today’s IAFF Executive Board meeting pic.twitter.com/D6K6eQFrF7

— International Association of Fire Fighters (@IAFFofficial) October 3, 2024

The IAFF represents over 300,000 career firefighters and emergency responders.

“The IAFF Executive Board determined that we are better able to advocate for our members and make progress on the issues that matter to them if we, as a union, are standing shoulder-to-shoulder,” IAFF General President Edward Kelly said in a statement.

“This decision, which we took very seriously, is the best way to preserve and strengthen our unity.”

As Politico notes, this is significant:

IAFF’s late non-endorsement — with votes already being cast in some states — carries particular weight given that the union was the first to endorse President Joe Biden at the outset of his campaign to defeat Donald Trump in 2019. That was partly due to Biden’s decades-long ties with IAFF and its then-leader, Harold Schaitberger, who stepped aside in 2021.

Under Schaitberger the IAFF had also preliminarily planned to endorse Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign but scuttled the idea after taking stock of its membership, The New York Times reported in 2015.

And to think, Harris’s campaign mocked VP candidate JD Vance after a few people booed him at the firefighters union conference…

When JD Vance spoke at the IAFF Conference last month, Kamala’s campaign mocked him because a few people in the audience booed him.

Turns out more IAFF members support Trump!https://t.co/gpT4IJcRQj

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 3, 2024