Kamala Harris Considered Pete Buttigieg as Running Mate Before Choosing Another

Kamala Harris is gearing up for the release of her upcoming memoir, 107 Days, which is set to provide readers with a behind-the-scenes look at the high-stakes campaign she led after Joe Biden suspended his re-election bid just three months before the election.

One of the early revelations from the memoir is Harris’ initial choice for a running mate, which was none other than her close friend, Pete Buttigieg, the former Secretary of Transportation. However, Harris ultimately decided against this choice as she believed it would be too risky for a Black woman to run alongside a gay man.

In an excerpt from The Atlantic, Harris explains, “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.”

She goes on to say, “Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But considering the stakes involved, it was ultimately too big of a risk.”