Fact Check: Tim Walz Claims Reagan Was ‘Last Union Member’ to Be on a ‘National Ticket’

CLAIM: Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz claimed that former President Ronald Reagan was the “last union member” to appear on a “national ticket.”

VERDICT: False. Former President Donald Trump was a member of the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union.

During a campaign rally in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Walz spoke about how “the thing that built the middle class” had been the ability to allow people to “collectively bargain and form a union” with their neighbors. Walz added that he had been a union member of Minnesota’s teacher’s union.

“I’ve been told….I’ve been told that I am…..For decades, a card-carrying union member of our state’s teacher union, which I was,” Walz told the crowd. “The last union member on a national ticket — Ronald Reagan. I promise you, I will not lose my way. I will not lose my way.”

Walz has previously made a similar claim. In August, Walz claimed he was “the first union member” to appear on a presidential ticket since Reagan.

“I happen to be the first union member on a presidential ticket since Ronald Reagan,” Walz said at the time. “But, rest assured, I won’t lose my way.”

This claim was fact-checked by ABC News, which found that Trump had been a member of SAG-AFTRA until he resigned from the union.

While Reagan served as the president of SAG-AFTRA for “seven terms,” Trump was a member of the SAG-AFTRA union for more than 30 years before he resigned in February 2021.

Trump’s resignation from the union came after SAG-AFTRA said it found “probable cause” that Trump had “violated the union’s Constitution,” and threatened to expel Trump from the union in the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.