The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) on Thursday said it would remain neutral in this year’s presidential race, electing not to endorse a candidate, becoming the second major union to do so in recent weeks.
The union’s executive board backed President Biden’s 2020 White House bid. In a statement, IAFF President Edward Kelly said the union membership voted by a margin of 1.2 percentage points not to endorse either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Trump.
“Over the past year, the IAFF took unprecedented steps to hear our members’ views on the candidates and the policy issues that matter most to them,” Kelly said of the decision.
“As we have over our 106-year history, the IAFF will continue its work to improve the lives of firefighters and their families,” he added. “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. This decision, which we took very seriously, is the best way to preserve and strengthen our unity.”
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Harris and Trump campaigns.
The decision by the IAFF came weeks after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced it would not endorse a candidate either.
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The Teamsters posted the results of internal polling on the 2024 candidates, showing that the union’s members favored Trump by 59.6% over Harris, who received 34% in an online survey. In a phone survey, Teamsters favored Trump over Harris, 58% to 31%.
“The union’s extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump,” the union said at the time.
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