In one other blow to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Worldwide Affiliation of Hearth Fighters introduced Thursday that it might not be making a 2024 presidential endorsement.
The union, which represents greater than 300,000 profession firefighters and emergency responders, was the primary to endorse President Biden’s 2020 White Home bid and has a lengthy historical past of backing Democratic presidential candidates.
IAFF’s choice to not endorse a candidate within the 2024 race comes two weeks after the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has additionally lengthy backed Democrats, defied the desire of its pro-Trump membership and declined to make a presidential endorsement.
“In the present day, the IAFF Govt Board, by a margin of 1.2%, voted to not endorse a candidate within the 2024 presidential election,” learn a press release from IAFF Normal President Edward Kelly.
“Over the previous 12 months, the IAFF took unprecedented steps to listen to our members’ views on the candidates and the coverage points that matter most to them.
“The IAFF Govt Board decided that we’re higher in a position to advocate for our members and make progress on the problems that matter to them if we, as a union, are standing shoulder-to-shoulder,” he added.
“The choice, which we took very severely, is one of the best ways to protect and strengthen our unity.”
Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), the one profession firefighter paramedic in Congress and a retired IAFF member, informed The Put up that the union’s choice to not endorse was a “huge deal” and excellent news for former President Donald Trump.
“I’m fairly positive there was an enormous wrestle for some folks that wished to endorse President Trump and a few folks wished to endorse Kamala Harris,” he mentioned.
“It’s not the identical factor that occurred 4 years in the past after they had been the primary union to endorse President Biden,” the congressman famous. “It’s an enormous shift in that union not giving an endorsement.”
The IAFF backed the Democratic nominee for president in each election between 1984 and 2012.
In 2016, when Trump was up in opposition to Democrat Hillary Clinton, the union equally didn’t make an endorsement, and because the Florida congressman famous, the IAFF endorsed Biden early in his 2020 race in opposition to Trump.
“I believe nearly all of the membership wished to endorse President Trump,” mentioned Gimenez, who served the Metropolis of Miami Hearth Division for 25 years.
“So, I believe this was a superb day for President Trump,” he added. “That is the second main union that has did not endorse the Democratic nominee — that’s an enormous deal.”
Gimenez, who represents Florida’s twenty eighth Congressional District, credited Trump’s enchantment with “the working man and girls of this nation” and his coverage towards nationwide safety with why many rank-and-file members of IAFF are backing him in 2024.
“He desires to revive jobs. He desires to carry American manufacturing again. He desires to ensure that our jobs aren’t exported. And he’s additionally very sturdy on our nationwide safety and protection — as a former firefighter, these issues are crucial to me: the homeland safety, nationwide safety and his assist of public security and public security personnel,” he mentioned.
Gimenez argued that Harris and the Democratic Social gathering’s “excessive left insurance policies” don’t sit nicely with firefighters.
“Not securing the border doesn’t enchantment to firefighters. Placing up bail for criminals who’re concerned in rioting — that doesn’t enchantment to firefighters,” the congressman defined.
“Document inflation, you already know, firefighters, they’re middle-class of us, and this file inflation, particularly with groceries and vitality costs, that impacts firefighters and the households of firefighters way more so than the elites that Kamala Harris is interesting to.”
