I\'m attempting to use python with sqlalchemy to download some data, create a temporary staging table on a Teradata Server, then MERGEing that table into another table which
Since you're using the engine directly, without using a transaction, you're probably (barring unseen configuration on your part) relying on SQLAlchemy's version of autocommit, which works by detecting data changing operations such as INSERTs etc. Possibly MERGE is not one of the detected operations. Try
sql = sqlalchemy.text(merge).execution_options(autocommit=True)
td_engine.execute(sql)