Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg publicly disagreed with former Vice President Kamala Harris’s judgment in deciding against choosing him as vice president.
Harris wrote in her latest book, 107 Days, that picking Buttigieg would have been “too big of a risk” and that America wasn’t ready for a black woman president and a gay vice president.
She said she believed Buttigieg knew that too. His comments on Thursday to Politico didn’t reflect that.
“I was surprised when I read that,” he said. “I just believe in giving Americans more credit than that.”
“My experience in politics is 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 added.
Buttigieg was one of Harris’s top choices for vice president until she chose running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN). Following Harris’s loss to President Donald Trump in November 2024, speculation erupted that the outcome could have been different if she had chosen a different running mate, such as Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA).
Harris wrote that Buttigieg was her first choice if she were not a “black woman married to a Jewish 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.
Harris’s political aspirations have been cloudy since her election loss. There had been some speculation that she would run for California governor, but she declined the opportunity. That decision left a 2028 presidential run open.
While her last two presidential runs have been unsuccessful, her 2024 bid came with just over three months to campaign. The namesake of 107 Days references the length of her campaign.
A 2028 bid would come as she has wide name recognition, though it’s uncertain whether the party will coalesce around her again.
Buttigieg could run for president in 2028 as the party vets a variety of candidates to lead them in a couple of years.
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He joined the redistricting fight Thursday in his home state of Indiana, slamming Republicans for changing the rules.
“We are here because Indiana Republicans are being pressured by Washington Republicans to do something that they know in their hearts is wrong,” Buttigieg said.
