Harris says her “first choice” running mate was Pete Buttigieg

Former Vice President Kamala Harris revealed that Pete Buttigieg was her “first choice” as running mate in last year’s presidential election, but such a pairing “was too big of a risk,” according to an excerpt from her upcoming book. 

Buttigieg, the former secretary of transportation and mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who is gay, “would have been an ideal partner – if I were a straight white man,” Harris wrote in a portion of “107 Days” published by The Atlantic. 

“But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a black woman, a black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk,” she added. “And I think Pete also knew that – to our mutual sadness.” 

Harris ultimately selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. That pairing lost the presidential election to Donald Trump and JD Vance in November. In the “107 Days” excerpt, Harris said Buttigieg initially led the eight names on her vetting list for running mates because “he is a sincere public servant with the rare talent of being able to frame liberal arguments in a way that makes it possible for conservatives to hear them,” according to The Atlantic. 

It is difficult to find much knowledge that Americans had of Kamala Harris’ husband’s religion, much less evidence that people cared in a negative way about it. Biden’s record as President and the fact that Kamala Harris did not win any votes to become the Democratic nominee were polled as things that dragged the former Vice President down, rather than her race and gender.

In the 2020 Democratic primaries, Kamala Harris struggled to gain support, and ultimately dropped out of the race before any votes were cast. Pete Buttigieg meanwhile, struggled to get out of the low single digits in support from African Americans, and, on the days he was actually working as the Transportation Secretary under President Biden, he received poor marks from the public.