Brothers and Sisters,

With the New Year and the first wave of presidential primaries and caucuses rapidly approaching, I wanted to take a moment to make sure we are all on the same page in this year’s presidential primary season.

As many of you have followed over the past 12 months, we have been engaged in a rigorous process to determine the answers to two questions: Is there a candidate the IAFF should endorse for president of the United States and, if so, when should we make that endorsement?

Over those 12 months, we have held a Presidential Forum with Republicans and Democrats alike invited to address members and leaders from across the country, conducted detailed polling and focus group research of membership across the country, researched the historical policy positions of the candidates and asked the campaigns to fill out questionnaires to understand their position on our "basket of issues." Most of all, however, we have listened to the members and local leaders of this union.

The IAFF Executive Board has had ongoing discussions concerning our endorsement process throughout that time, as well. Last month, our Executive Board met to discuss the state of the presidential race, listen to detailed briefings on the final results of our research and to get political updates on all the crucial down ballot elections coming up this year. I also wanted the chance to hear from every board member about their feelings and what they were hearing from the leadership and membership in their districts about the presidential race and our process. After a very productive discussion, we reached the consensus that the IAFF will not be making an endorsement for the foreseeable future in the presidential election – we are going to let the process continue to work while we engage in an effort to educate and communicate to all of the candidates the issues that are important to our members and this union.

This will be the first time in my tenure as General President that we as an International have not weighed in on any of the early primaries or caucuses. Organizationally, we will not engage in these contests, but you, as informed, politically active citizens, should feel free to attend your primary, caucus and candidate events. We ask that our affiliate officers not take a position on behalf of the IAFF or their local at this time on candidates in their state’s primary or caucus. Now I want to make clear that your IAFF Executive Board continues to celebrate and support local autonomy. This request is simply based on our hope that when we do finally endorse, it will be with the one, loud, strong voice, and our gold and black brand that has come to define our union.

Just as we are doing at the national level, we encourage you as IAFF leaders and members to make sure our issues remain as top priorities for all of the candidates. As you interact with candidates and staff, we encourage you to raise issues important to this union and our great membership. So that you have all of the information you need when you raise these issues, summaries of some of the key legislative issues we face at the national level that would be good for you to address are available in this PDF.

In the meantime, we’ll be watching and listening, and continuing to gather information to help make the right choice for the future of this union. We will keep you updated on where the Executive Board is on a decision as we go forward. Please don’t hesitate to contact our Political Department at (202) 824-1584 if you need more information.

Thank you for your work. 

Stay safe,

Harold A. Schaitberger
General President