Kamala Reveals Who Her ‘First Choice’ For Running Mate Was

Former Vice President Kamala Harris wanted to pick then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her running mate in 2024, but decided against it because she wasn’t “a straight white man,” according to an excerpt from her new book. 

In portions of her new memoir published by The Atlantic on Wednesday, Harris wrote that the openly gay Buttigieg was her “first choice” for her vice presidential running mate. However, she said she felt that a ticket with Buttigieg would present a level of diversity America wasn’t ready to embrace.

Harris wrote that Buttigieg “would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man.”

“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,” Harris wrote. “And I think Pete also knew that—to our mutual sadness.”

Harris’s book, called “107 Days,” is set to be released on September 23.

Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was Biden’s transportation secretary. He is reportedly considering a run for president in 2028. Earlier this year, he opted not to run for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, reportedly to position himself better for a run for the White House. 

Harris wrote that Buttigieg “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.”

In the end, Harris chose Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. 

The first portions of her book, released earlier this month, Harris attacked former President Joe Biden, claiming his re-election bid was driven by ego and that his team actively sought to undermine her.

“Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” she wrote of Biden’s decision to run for re-election. “The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.”