Sean O'Brien sells out workers to back Republican Ashley Moody
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
Teamsters President Sean O'Brien endorsed Republican Ashley Moody over organizer Angie Nixon, a transactional move that trades real worker security for a seat at the conservative table.
Sean O'Brien is playing a game of access, and the workers are the stakes. The General President of the Teamsters, a union 123 years old, just threw his weight behind Republican Senator Ashley Moody in Florida. O'Brien claims he is a "lifelong Democrat," but his actions tell a different story. He is trading the solidarity of the labor movement for a handshake with a corporate stalwart. By backing Moody over Angie Nixon, a seasoned organizer, O'Brien has decided that a seat at the right-wing table is more valuable than the people he represents.
A deal made in the shadows of the rank and file
O'Brien says he is doing this for the members. According to Fox News, he praised Moody for protecting pensions and supporting apprenticeship programs. He wants her help on the Senate HELP Committee to pass the Faster Labor Contracts Act. This is the classic language of the transactional boss. He is treating worker rights like a chip in a poker game.
But look at who he is ignoring. Angie Nixon is not just a Democratic nominee. She is a former field director for the SEIU and a director for the Florida Public Service Union. She has spent her life building picket lines. Nixon told O'Brien on X that Moody "never walked the line with you." She is right.
This tension is not new. It is the same mechanism we saw with the Wagner Act. That law guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action. O'Brien is leaning into the maneuvering. He is betting that a few concessions from a Republican will outweigh the systemic power of a pro-worker candidate.
The corporate record Ashley Moody wants you to forget
If you follow the money, the "help" O'Brien sees from Moody looks like a mirage. Ashley Moody has spent her career serving the interests that keep my neighbors in Flint broke. As Florida Attorney General, she fought to invalidate the Affordable Care Act. She knows that for a working family, one medical emergency is the distance between a home and the street.
Her record is a map of corporate loyalty. Moody approved a settlement with Centene Corporation that diverted $10 million to a political charity tied to the governor's family. That money should have gone to the state treasury. Instead, it went to a slush fund for elites. This is the "populism" O'Brien is endorsing.
Florida Politics reports that 58% of Teamsters members favored Donald Trump in a survey. Only 31% supported Kamala Harris. O'Brien is claiming to follow the membership, but leadership is supposed to lead. He is using a membership poll to justify a pivot toward the 2016 United States presidential election shift, where labor support drifted toward the GOP. He is not leading workers toward power; he is following them into a trap.
A pattern of leadership drifting from the line
This is not an isolated vote. O'Brien already spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention. He is signaling that the old alliances are dead.
But the answer to that abandonment is not to cozy up to people like Moody. The answer is candidates like Nixon, who wants a $25 minimum wage and universal health care. When O'Brien ignores a candidate who actually wants to tax the wealthy, he is telling the 1.3 million members of his union that their struggle is a bargaining chip.
He claims that if the "far-left" attacks him, it is "OK." He is framing this as a clash of ideologies. It is not. It is a clash of interests. On one side is a woman who organized for the SEIU. On the other is a Senator who voted to end health care premium subsidies.
The result will be a betrayal of the rank and file. Senate Republicans will use this endorsement as cover to pass a watered-down Faster Labor Contracts Act. They will give the union a photo-op while stripping the law of any real enforcement. This is how corporate power wins: it co-opts the leadership to disarm the workers. Sean O'Brien has traded the picket line for a boardroom, and the workers will be the ones paying the price.