Harris meets with Teamsters as union nears endorsement decision

Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said Monday that the powerful union could issue a presidential endorsement in the coming days, after hosting Vice President Kamala Harris for a closed-door roundtable.

“We are going to look at any and all options, and I can’t commit to what we’re going to do,” he told reporters at the union’s D.C. headquarters.

Harris left immediately after the meeting without talking to reporters.

O’Brien said the union is wrapping up polling of its membership ahead of an executive board meeting on Wednesday. He said those results will also be publicly released.“There’s no secret that the Teamsters union is very different than most unions, and I mean that with total respect; we represent everybody from airline pilots and zookeepers, O’Brien said. “We don’t just represent registered Democrats, we represent registered Republicans and independents, and so we have to take [that] into consideration.”

But it switched up its process under O’Brien, courting presidential candidates of all stripes — including former President Donald Trump — and has remained uncommitted as most other unions lined up behind the Democratic ticket.

O’Brien said that open-ended stance — which has garnered notable opposition inside the union — has been a “complete distraction, but it’s necessary because we need to make sure we make the right decisions” given the Teamsters’ diverse membership.