No, Walz is not the first union member on the presidential ticket since Reagan

While campaigning in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 21, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz spoke on the importance of the right to organize and form unions. 

During the speech, Walz specifically mentioned the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which restores the right for workers to form a union and collectively bargain. When the PRO Act was mentioned, people in the crowd applauded.

Walz then says, “Now the folks who are hollering out here are the folks who understand the purest, and the most strongest, and the thing that built the middle class was the ability to collectively bargain and form a union with your neighbors … I am for decades a card carrying member of our state’s teachers union, which I was. That last union member on a national ticket? Ronald Reagan.”

The clip from Walz’s speech was posted to X, where people in the comments said that isn’t true, claiming that former President Donald Trump was also a union member. 

THE QUESTION

Is Tim Walz the first union member on the presidential ticket since Ronald Reagan?

THE SOURCES

• Various SAG-AFTRA press releases from 2021
• Letter from Donald Trump to SAG-AFTRA

THE ANSWER

No, Walz is not the first union member on the presidential ticket since Reagan. Trump was a member of SAG-AFTRA in 2016 and 2020.

WHAT WE FOUND

Former President Donald Trump was a member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) during his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns but is no longer a union member.

SAG-AFTRA is an American labor union representing 160,000 broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, recording artists and actors.

Trump had been a SAG member since 1989. His acting credits include “The Apprentice,” “Saturday Night Live” and many cameos in films and TV series, including “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Sex and the City.”

After the events on Jan. 6, 2021, SAG-AFTRA ordered a disciplinary hearing to determine if Trump violated the union’s constitution and guidelines for membership for his role in the insurrection. In response to the disciplinary hearing, Trump resigned from the union on Feb. 4, 2021, in a letter to then-SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris. On Feb. 7, 2021, SAG-AFTRA’s governing body voted to ban him from renewing his membership. 

Walz was a member of the National Education Association (NEA), which represents teachers. Walz was a longtime high-school social studies teacher.

Ronald Reagan was a member and eventually served as president of the Screen Actors Guild of America for seven terms.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.