WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Kamala Harris says she would have picked Pete Buttigieg as her running mate last year but America wasn’t ready for the pairing, according to an excerpt of her new book.
Harris writes in an excerpt of â107 Daysâ published Wednesday in The Atlantic that former President Joe Bidenâs transportation secretary was her âfirst choice,” adding that he âwould have been an ideal partner â if I were a straight white man.”
âBut 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, letâs just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk,” she writes.
Her thoughts on selecting a running mate come as potential 2028 contenders begin traveling the U.S. in the early days of the second Trump administration.
In the book excerpt, she writes about her love of working with Buttigieg and her friendship with him and his husband, but that the two of them on the Democratic ticket would have been too risky.
âAnd I think Pete also knew that â to our mutual sadness,” she writes.
It wasn’t immediately clear at what point she decided against Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and former intelligence officer in the Navy Reserves. Buttigieg emerged as a national political figure during his 2020 presidential run in which he finished atop the Iowa caucuses.
The Associated Press didnât immediately hear back from a spokesperson for Buttigieg.
After Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July 2024 following a disastrous debate performance, Harris was left to head up the Democratic ticket.
She picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate after his attack line against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, then-Ohio Sen. JD Vance â âThese guys are just weirdâ â spread widely. They ultimately lost.
Harrisâ book, whose title is referencing the length of her condensed presidential campaign, is set to be published by Simon & Schuster on Tuesday.
