Former US Vice-President Kamala Harris reportedly wanted to have gay politician Pete Buttigieg as her running mate but it was deemed “too risky”.
When US President Joe Biden announced he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election and would not seek a second term, his Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him as the Democratic candidate.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, lost the election to Donald Trump who returned for a second term. But Walz was reportedly not the first choice to be her Vice President nominee.
Harris is about to release an autobiography, and in it she reportedly reveals that she would have liked to have Pete Buttigieg as her running mate. However the proposal of the USA embracing the first woman President, and the first gay Vice-resident, was seen as being too much.
“We were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man” she apparently writes in her memoir.
“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 reportedly writes in the book.
Buttigieg previously ran for the Presidency in 2019. He won the Iowa Democratic Caucus, making history as the first candidate who had publicly shared that they were same-sex attracted to win a major primary.
He dropped out of the race after placing fourth in the South Carolina primary and endorsed Joe Biden. When Biden took office he appointed Buttigieg as the Secretary of Transport.
He is now one of the top contenders to be the Democratic nominee for President at the 2029 election, as is Harris who also remains popular with voters.
The new biography from Harris is titled 107 Days and is focused on her run for President from the time she took over Biden to polling day, something she describes as the shortest presidential campaign of all time.
