Exclusive: Buttigieg Pushes Back on Harris’ Claim He Was “Too Risky” as Running Mate

Former Transportation Secretary says Americans deserve “more credit” after Harris reveals she passed on him over fears of voter backlash.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. | Pete Buttigieg has responded directly to Kamala Harris’ revelation that she considered him her top choice for a running mate but ultimately deemed him “too risky” for the ticket.

In her forthcoming memoir 107 Days, the former vice president writes that Buttigieg, then-Transportation Secretary, “would have been an ideal partner — if I were a straight white man.” Harris explained that asking voters to accept a Black woman and a gay man on the same presidential ticket was “too big a risk.”

Buttigieg, speaking Thursday with 'TELL IT LIKE IT IS' News before a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Indiana, said he was surprised by Harris’s comments and rejected the premise.

“My experience in politics has been 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 said. “I believe in giving Americans more credit.”

The exchange highlights a growing tension within the Democratic Party as it navigates diversity, electability, and messaging after a series of electoral setbacks. Republicans have attacked Democrats as being too “woke,” while Democrats themselves remain divided on how strongly to center diversity, equity, and inclusion in their political strategy.

Buttigieg pointed to Barack Obama’s 2008 win in Indiana and his own two mayoral terms in South Bend as proof that voters respond to results, not labels.

Harris, who ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, wrote that she felt the stakes were too high to gamble on what could have been a historic pairing. Still, she described the decision as one of “mutual sadness.”

Both Harris and Buttigieg are widely expected to be contenders in the 2028 Democratic presidential primaries, setting the stage for a potential rivalry. Each has already begun positioning themselves as the party struggles to regroup after recent losses and the controversial decision of President Joe Biden to seek reelection in 2024.

The revelations underscore the Democratic Party’s looming identity test: can a ticket openly centered on diversity and inclusion still win over a deeply divided electorate, or will pragmatic calculations continue to outweigh historic firsts?

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-- By James W. Thomas and James A. Wright

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