Kamala Harris Reveals Who She Actually Wanted As Running Mate

In a revealing excerpt from her upcoming memoir 107 Days, former Vice President Kamala Harris admits that her first choice for a running mate during the 2024 presidential election was none other than former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — but she ultimately passed him over, fearing the political pairing would be “too big of a risk” for the American electorate.

The candid admission, published by The Atlantic, pulls back the curtain on a high-stakes decision that Harris says was shaped not just by qualifications, but by political calculations rooted in identity politics and electability concerns.

She said that Pete would have been an ideal partner if she 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. And I think Pete also knew that — to our mutual sadness.”

Harris’s reasons that the combination of a black woman and a gay man on a major-party ticket would overwhelm voters’ tolerance for social progress, no matter their qualifications.

The decision could also reignite frustration among progressives, many of whom viewed the 2024 campaign as a missed opportunity to run an “inclusive” ticket they thought was capable of galvanizing a more diverse electorate.

From Admiration to Abandonment

Harris didn’t hold back her praise of Buttigieg, calling him a “sincere public servant” with a rare political skill: being able to communicate liberal ideals in language conservatives could hear. She described the former South Bend mayor and his husband, Chasten, as personal friends and trusted allies during her time in the Biden administration.

“I love Pete,” Harris wrote. “I love working with Pete.”

But admiration wasn’t enough to seal the deal.

Instead, Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a more conventional pick chosen to balance the novelty of her campaign campaign with a white, male governor from the Midwest. The strategy failed. The Harris-Walz ticket was soundly defeated by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in the 2024 election — a historic landslide that many Democrats are still trying to unpack.

While many will applaud her honesty, others will see it as an indictment of the Democratic Party’s own internal contradictions — a party that constantly touts diversity but often shrinks from fully embracing it when the stakes are highest.

Fallout and Reaction

Fox News Digital reports that they have reached out to representatives for Pete Buttigieg for comment. So far, neither he nor his husband Chasten has made a public statement regarding Harris’s remarks.

But the excerpt is likely to make waves among Democrats already grappling with post-election soul-searching. It also raises fresh questions about the political ceiling for openly gay candidates and the continued role of racial and gender identity in national campaigns.

Book Release and Future Implications

107 Days hits shelves next Tuesday, September 23. Marketed as a behind-the-scenes look at one of the “most consequential presidential campaigns in American history,” the book promises to offer unfiltered insights into the pressures, missteps, and personal reflections that defined Harris’s historic — and ultimately unsuccessful — bid for the presidency. 

Harris and Buttigieg were both candidates in the 2020 Democratic primary before joining President Biden’s administration. Harris faced relentless scrutiny during her tenure as Vice President and later as the Democratic nominee in 2024, and Buttigieg was also heavily criticized for several major decisions throughout his time leading a critical department.

Kamala Harris’s disclosure about passing over Pete Buttigieg may have been intended as a show of vulnerability and realism — but it also exposes the deep-rooted anxieties within the Democratic establishment.