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Kamala Harris says Buttigieg was ‘first choice’ for VP but proved ‘too risky’

September 18, 2025 | | Print Article

Former Vice President Harris revealed who her “first choice” was for a running mate in 2024, and it wasn’t Gov. Tim Walz.

In another revelation from the failed Democratic presidential nominee’s upcoming book, Harris wanted former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as her vice presidential running mate, but found it was too risky.

“As Kamala Harris rushed to pick a running mate last year, her ‘first choice’ was her close friend Pete Buttigieg, but she decided that it would be ‘too big of a risk’ for a Black woman to run with a gay man,” The Atlantic reported on the book “107 Days.”

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

“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,” the excerpt read.

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

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CNN’s Scott Jennings noted that Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., would have been a “far superior choice” for VP candidate.

Harris ultimately chose Walz, but other names that were floated as potential VPs included Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Harris’s upcoming book seems to continue revealing unflattering facts about the former vice president and her short-lived run for the White House. In another excerpt published by The Atlantic last week, Harris had been critical of then-President Joe Biden’s decision to run for re-election.

“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized. Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness,” she said in the excerpt. “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.”

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Added to the other sneak previews from Harris’ memoir, the comments about Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., not being good enough for the choice as running mate, stirred plenty of reaction on social media.

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Frieda Powers
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