Buttigieg refuses to s​peculate on being Harris’ running mate

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, one of approximately ten Democrats reportedly under consideration by the Harris campaign to be her vice presidential running mate, is refusing to even discuss the possibility, or if he would accept if asked.

In a local interview with Spectrum News/NY1‘s Taylor Popielarz, Buttigieg was quick to tamp down any vice presidential speculation, calling it “inappropriate” to discuss on television, while saying his goal is to “help make the case” for Harris.

“At this point has the Harris campaign asked you for materials to vet you as a running mate?” Popielarz asked Tuesday.

“I don’t really want to speak to that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about on television, but I will do everything I can in whatever way is most helpful to her, to make sure she’s our next president.”

Asked if he would be interested in being Harris’s vice president, Buttigieg would only say, “I love public service.”

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“There’s also a lot of other things in life that I really love, including, along with Chasten, being a parent to two incredible kids. And I sincerely don’t know what the future will bring,” said the Transportation Secretary, who, now 42, is the youngest to ever hold that position. “I do know that I have a day job that I’m passionate about, and will do everything I can when I’m not doing that day job to help make the case for Kamala Harris to be the next president.”

Buttigieg went on to say Harris, “represents continuity in terms of values but change in terms of a new messenger who I think can speak in new ways to all generations of Americans. She can rightly share in credit for many of the administration’s greatest achievements: the historic infrastructure law, the 15 million jobs created, the work that’s been done to restore manufacturing to places like the industrial Midwest where I grew up,”

A Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, Buttigieg is a Rhodes Scholar, served in Afghanistan as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserves, is a former two-term Indiana mayor, and was a surrogate for the Biden 2020 campaign. President Biden said Buttigieg reminded him of his beloved, late son Beau Biden.

Buttigieg and his husband moved to Chasten’s home state of Michigan, a key battleground state, in 2022.

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“When I married Chasten, I married into Michigan at some level to begin with,” Buttigieg said at the time, according to The Detroit News. “But it was really the arrival of our children that cemented our relationship to Traverse City.” Chasten’s parents live in Michigan.

Comparing him to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Spectrum/NY1 noted Buttigieg “is a native Midwesterner who could appeal to swing voters in the critical states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.”

Responding to the interview, Politico’s Adam Wren observed, “As a Senate-confirmed Cabinet member, and former presidential candidate, Buttigieg is in a little different territory than the others on the list—his disclosures are already readily available and more extensive than anything that can be scrounged up in a week.

Journalist Seth Abramson on Monday posted a Morning Consult poll from May that shows net favorability ratings in swing states among some high-profile Democrats.

Watch a portion of the Buttigieg interview bellow or at this link.

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