Former US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg — revealed by Kamala Harris as her initial first choice for running mate before she ultimately selected Minnesota governor Tim Walz — said he was “surprised” by the disclosure, arguing that it is wrong to assume Americans would not vote for a Black woman as president and a gay man as vice president.“I believe in giving Americans more credit than assuming they couldn’t vote for a Black woman and a gay man on the same presidential ticket,” Buttigieg told Politico. He added: “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… Politics is about the results we can get for people and not about these other things.”In her memoir 107 Days — set for release September 23 — Harris writes that Buttigieg topped her initial list of eight potential running mates before she ultimately chose Walz. The then–vice president explained she felt it would be “too big of a risk” to ask voters to back a ticket led by a Black woman married to a Jewish man and paired with an openly gay running mate.“Part of me wanted to say, ‘Screw it, let’s just do it,’” Harris writes. “But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.” She added that Buttigieg “also knew that — to our mutual sadness.”Buttigieg disputed that claim, saying such a discussion never took place between them.The book’s title refers to the 107 days between July 21, 2024, when then-President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election, and November 5 (Election Day). Harris, elevated to the Democratic ticket, ultimately lost with Walz to the Republican duo of Donald Trump and JD Vance — not only in the Electoral College but also in the national popular vote.The outcome marked Trump’s return to the White House, four years after his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 while serving as the incumbent president.
