Teamsters boss Sean O'Brien took the biggest stage in Republican politics in 2024 and ripped into Corporate America.
Now he just made his first vote as a Florida resident, and it was not for a Democrat.
The senator he just endorsed is now facing backlash from the union he leads – and Democrats cannot stop talking about it.
Teamsters Boss Cast His Vote for Ashley Moody and Said So Publicly
Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien did not wait for Election Day to count his vote.
He cast an early ballot in Florida and posted about it himself.
"Just voted in the State of Florida for the first time, and very proud to have cast a ballot for Sen. Ashley Moody," O'Brien wrote on November 1, just two days before Florida voters decide the race.
Moody is a sitting Republican senator and former state attorney general running for a full term against a Democratic Socialists of America-aligned state lawmaker.
O'Brien did not hedge on why he backed her.
He said Moody has worked directly with the Teamsters to protect pension funds, defend good-paying jobs, and fund apprenticeship programs.
Moody also sits on the Senate HELP Committee, where O'Brien wants her pushing the Faster Labor Contracts Act.
That bill stops companies from stalling union contracts for years and forces them back to the bargaining table.
That is a 1.3 million-member union endorsing a sitting Republican by name, on the record, with Election Day set for November 3.
A DSA-Backed Democrat Called Him a Scab for Voting Republican
O'Brien's vote did not sit well with Democrats.
Angie Nixon, the DSA-aligned state representative challenging Moody, posted an old photo of herself with O'Brien.
"Ashley Moody never walked the line with you," Nixon wrote. "But ok brother. Shout out to all the rank and file Teamsters that are voting for me. I will always stand with you."
Online critics went further, branding O'Brien a scab – union slang for a worker who crosses a picket line to side with management.
The attacks intensified once word spread that O'Brien had moved his voter registration out of his hometown of Boston and into Florida to cast that ballot.
O'Brien has heard this exact criticism before, and he has never flinched from it.
"If the far-left want to criticize me and attack me, that's OK," he said back in 2024. "If the far-right wants to do the same, that's great. I represent 1.3 million hardworking men and women."
New York Union Leaders Are Warning of the Same Exodus Nationwide
O'Brien did not start this fight in Florida.
In July 2024, he became the first Teamster in history to address a Republican National Convention, delivering a floor speech that tore into corporate greed and Wall Street elites while praising Republican lawmakers including then-Senator JD Vance.
The speech enraged Democratic officials and cracked open decades of reflexive labor loyalty to the party.
O'Brien pressed ahead anyway, and the Teamsters never endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
He is not alone in breaking that loyalty.
Fox News has reported that union leaders across the country, including in New York, are warning that socialist-aligned Democratic politicians are driving blue-collar workers out of the party entirely.
Rank-and-file members who voted Democrat for generations are now telling union bosses they are done bankrolling a party that nominates self-described democratic socialists over candidates who protect their jobs and pensions.
Angie Nixon fits that exact profile: a DSA-aligned Jacksonville lawmaker who beat a more moderate Democrat in the primary and picked up an endorsement from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Florida Teamsters Vote Red While Schumer Chases Socialists
Chuck Schumer's party is trading union households for Brooklyn activists, and Sean O'Brien just put a price tag on it.
A 123-year-old union does not go hunting for Republicans on a whim.
It goes looking for them the moment Democrats stop representing the people who carry union cards.
Nixon can keep the photo. O'Brien kept the vote.
Sources:
- Charles Creitz, "Union Boss Stuns With Major Republican Endorsement as Election Nears," Fox News, November 2, 2026.
- Fox News, "AOC Backs Florida Dem Angie Nixon for US Senate: I'm Proud to Endorse Her," Fox News, 2026.
- The Washington Times, "Sean O'Brien, Teamsters President, Attacks Big Business," The Washington Times, July 15, 2024.
- Fox News, "Frustrated Blue-Collar Union Bosses Rip Socialist Politicians, Warn of Labor Exodus From Dem Party," Fox News, 2026.
- Megyn Kelly, "Get to Know the Florida Socialist Who Delivered Shock Upset Victory in Dem Primary for Senate," MegynKelly.com, August 19, 2026.
