The president of the Teamsters union has asked for speaking slots at both the Republican and Democratic national conventions, at a time when President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump have pressed for the support of rank-and-file members of organized labor.
The move by Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, confirms the fact that his group, unlike other influential umbrella unions that support Mr. Biden in the 2024 election, has not endorsed the presidential race. Mr O’Brien explained that he was delaying a decision until later this year.
Kara Deniz, a spokeswoman for the Teamsters union, confirmed that Mr. O’Brien, through an aide, had told officials working at the convention that he would be interested in speaking at the nominations event one day. The Republicans will hold their convention in Milwaukee in July, and the Democrats will hold their convention in Chicago in August.
It would be unusual in today’s fractious political climate for someone to speak at both conventions.
During the year, Mr. O’Brien has invited several presidential candidates, including Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump and independent candidates like Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to speak before his group. But Mr O’Brien has what people close to Mr Trump believe is a developing relationship with the former president.
The Teamsters is one of the nation’s largest labor unions, with 1.3 million members in sectors such as trucking and manufacturing. The AFL-CIO and the United Automobile Workers have backed Mr. Biden, and Shawn Fain, the UAW president, has been highly critical of Mr. Trump.
Mr O’Brien, however, has appeared more open to the former president.
Mr. O’Brien had a private meeting with Mr. Trump at the beginning of the year in Mar-a-Lago, shortly before the Iowa caucuses that the former president won handily, setting him on the way to become his party’s nominee for a third time.
The following month, the Teamsters gave $45,000 to fund the Republican and Democratic conventions, with officials saying the goal was to ensure that rank-and-file members were heard at the convention.
Mr. Biden describes himself as the most pro-labor president in history. And in 2020, he cut into Mr. Trump’s gains with working-class white voters in his 2016 presidential campaign against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. That year, Mr. Trump’s appeal to voters in the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania was key to his victory.
Also that year, some of Mr. Trump’s allies, including Paul Manafort, the one-time campaign chairman, tried to work with the labor movement to see if they could peel off support for Mrs. Clinton from organized labor.
This year, as Mr. Biden has struggled in Sun Belt swing states, such as Arizona, his path through white working-class states in the Rust Belt appears to be key.
Even without an endorsement, having Mr. O’Brien at the Republican National Convention would be politically beneficial for Mr. Trump, who often highlights ties to score political points. The Teamsters endorsed Mr. Biden in 2020, although the endorsement came late in the general election campaign, after it became clear that the candidate would be the presumptive Democratic nominee.
A spokeswoman representing both the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee did not respond to requests for comment about whether the GOP would give Mr. O’Brien a speaking slot.
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, did not address whether the Democrats would give Mr. O’Brien a slot.
“There is only one candidate in this race against American workers and creating well-paid union jobs at home, and that is President Biden,” said Mr. Munoz, saying that Mr. Trump “has spent his entire life fighting for workers’ rights. “and Mr. Biden” will continue to work to earn the Teamsters’ support.”
Mr. O’Brien was elected union president on a wave of reformist energy in 2021. But unlike some umbrella unions that support Mr. Biden, Mr. O’Brien has some members in southern states who support the former president. . And whatever his personal relationship with Mr. Trump, there is a chance that Mr. O’Brien will benefit from his own membership if he appears open to talking to Republicans.
