Pete Buttigieg said he was “surprised” to learn Kamala Harris decided not to pick him as her 2024 running mate, despite being her first choice, because she thought voters were not ready to support a ticket featuring both a Black woman and a gay man.
The former transportation secretary told Politico that he believes in “giving Americans more credit than that,” offering his own political career as proof of what happens when you do.
“My experience in politics has been that the way you earn trust with voters is based mostly on what they think you’re going to do for their lives, not on categories,” Buttigieg said ahead of a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Monroe County Democratic Party headquarters in Indiana. “I wouldn’t have run for president if I didn’t believe that.”
In her soon-to-be-released memoir 107 Days, a reference to the length of her 2024 presidential campaign, Harris reveals she initially wanted Buttigieg as her running mate rather than her eventual choice, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Harris writes that Buttigieg topped an initial eight-person list of candidates, praising his ability to “frame liberal arguments in a way that makes it possible for conservatives to hear them.” However, Buttigieg did not make Harris’ shorter final shortlist because, she said, the former South Bend mayor would have been too “risky” a choice.
“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,” Harris wrote. “And I think Pete also knew that—to our mutual sadness.”
Harris added that Buttigieg would have been an “ideal partner” for her White House bid if she were a “straight white man.”
Speaking to Politico, Buttigieg cited how Barack Obama, the first and only Black president of the U.S., managed to flip the typically Red state of Indiana for the first time in 40 years and his own re-election as mayor of South Bend as evidence of what happens when you prioritize earning voters’ trust.
“I was right here in Indiana when this state turned blue for the first time since Lyndon B. Johnson. And it wasn’t Bill Clinton who did it, it wasn’t John Kerry who did it. It happened in 2008 when Barack Obama was leading the ticket,” Buttigieg said. “You just have to go to voters with what you think you can do for them.”
Buttigieg became the first openly gay man to launch a Democratic presidential campaign in 2020, winning the Iowa caucus and finishing second in New Hampshire. He eventually dropped out as the party rallied behind Joe Biden, with Buttigieg now widely seen as a potential 2028 contender.
Harris does not reveal in her book whether Walz knew he wasn’t her first choice. But Teddy Tschann, a spokesperson for the Minnesota governor, took the news about Buttigieg in his stride, describing the former transport secretary as “astounding.”
“The party’s lucky to have such a deep bench of talent. Now we need everyone out on the field making our case ahead of ’28,” Tschann told the Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast has contacted Harris’ office for comment.
