No matter how you spin it, the announced presence of Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, at the Republican National Convention next month is a watershed moment for the Republican Party.

In a post on Truth Social last week, former President Donald Trump announced that O’Brien had accepted an invitation to speak at the convention in Milwaukee. It will be the first time the president of the union will address the party’s convention.

“Our GREAT convention will unify Americans and demonstrate to the nation’s working families they come first,” Trump said. “When I am back in the White House, the hardworking Teamsters, and all working Americans, will once again have a country they can afford to live in and be respected around the world. Sean, I look forward to seeing you represent the Teamsters in Milwaukee. Together we can Make America Great Again.”

It has been 36 years since the Teamsters endorsed a Republican presidential candidate, so to say that O’Brien’s announced speech at the convention will be unusual is a gross understatement.

It should be noted O’Brien and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters have not endorsed Trump for the presidency, and everyone has been clear that his address to the convention is not an endorsement either. In fact, O’Brien has requested that the Democratic Party allow him to speak at its August convention in Chicago.

But even though the union has withheld its endorsement, O’Brien’s mere presence at the event is notable in its own right. Republican administrations and politicians have long prided themselves as a party that is skeptical of organized labor. “Right-to-work” laws that ensured employees were not automatically required to join a union and pay union dues have long been a major policy goal at the state level for the party. Republican politicians have also enacted policies designed to make it more difficult for workplaces to unionize.

But while O’Brien, a legacy union man from Massachusetts, has traded barbs with Republican politicians such as Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), the Republican Party of 2024 is one that is far more friendly to private-sector organized labor than the Republican Party of past election cycles.

This evolution is a natural one that has largely been driven by the growing support for the Republican Party among white voters without college degrees, which make up a large part of private-sector union membership. Furthermore, the union’s membership is majority white and overwhelmingly male, two demographics that typically support Republican candidates.

The shift in the GOP’s feelings toward organized labor has even become evident among lawmakers. In 2023, Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) even joined picket lines when the United Auto Workers union launched an enormous strike against the three largest auto manufacturers. Months later, O’Brien went out of his way to praise Hawley openly and said the union was working with the senator on legislation.

But the impetus for this evolution of Republican support for organized labor can arguably be traced back to Trump himself. He transformed the party into a working-class party through his policies and rhetoric on international trade and immigration. In both of his prior campaigns, results showed that a large percentage of union members bucked their Democratic Party-supporting leadership and voted for Trump.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

But the difference this time around is that O’Brien has shown a willingness to listen to his membership and hear the Republican candidate out. And unlike previous Republican candidates, Trump has reciprocated and urged the union to endorse him.

Regardless of whether or not the union ultimately endorses Trump, O’Brien’s presence at the Republican convention should not be casually dismissed. It is a sign that working-class populism is here to stay in the GOP, and this one speech could mark the beginning of a new pro-labor era of Republican politics.