Firefighters union declines to endorse Kamala Harris for president after being first to back Biden in 2020

IAFF President Edward Kelly said that the union’s executive board voted by a margin of just 1.2 percent not to endorse Democratic candidate Kamala Harris or GOP candidate Donald 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.

"As we have over our 106-year history, the IAFF will continue its work to improve the lives of firefighters and their families. 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," he added.

This comes after the Teamsters union also refused to endorse any candidate in the election, after endorsing Biden in the last presidential election.

GOP Rep Carlos Gimenez, who served on the Miami Fire Department for 25 years and is a retired IAFF member, told the New York Post that the decision not to endorse Harris was a "big deal" and good news for Trump.

"I’m pretty sure there was a big struggle for some people that wanted to endorse President Trump and some people wanted to endorse Kamala Harris," he said. "It’s not the same thing that happened four years ago when they were the first union to endorse President Biden. It’s a big shift in that union not giving an endorsement."

The IAFF backed the Democrat presidential candidate in every election between 1984 and 2012, and during Trump’s first presidential run in 2016, the union similarly did not give an endorsement for either party’s candidate.

"I think the majority of the membership wanted to endorse President Trump," Gimenez said. "So, I think this was a good day for President Trump. This is the second major union that has failed to endorse the Democratic nominee — that’s a big deal."