Harris says Buttigieg was 'first choice' for 2024 running mate, but 'was too big of a risk'

Former Vice President Kamala Harris writes in her new book that when she was the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee her "first choice" for running-mate was then Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg but that it was "too big of a risk."

In excerpts of her memoir, “107 Days,” Harris said that Buttigieg was her “first choice” and “would have been an ideal partner – if I were a straight white man,” according to the Associated Press.

“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,” she wrote.

Harris said that she enjoyed working with Buttigieg, a former Indiana mayor and Democratic presidential candidate, and her friendship with him and his husband, but that having them on the Democratic ticket was too big of a chance to take.

“And I think Pete also knew that – to our mutual sadness,” she said.

Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate after then-President Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.