DNC vice chair weighs in on Kamala Harris’ book recapping 2024

Former Vice President Kamala Harris’ highly anticipated book recapping the 2024 election cycle gives a nod to former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg that could open doors to a potential 2028 presidential run, DNC Vice Chair Shasti Conrad told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. 

“I think that Pete Buttigieg is one of our absolute best communicators, and you know, we’re seeing that now. … I think her saying that, hopefully opens up a door for Pete to run again for president, and you know, we’ll see where all that lands, and whether the country, you know, is ready to have him lead us,” Conrad told Fox News Digital in a Thursday interview. 

Conrad, who underscored the book also sets up Harris for potentially launching another presidential run of her own, spoke to Fox News Digital ahead of the memoir’s official Tuesday release. Only a handful of excerpts of the book, “107 Days,” so far have been released to the public, including The Atlantic most recently reporting that Harris initially wanted Buttigieg as her running mate before ultimately choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. 

Buttigieg “would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man,” Harris wrote in the upcoming book, according to The Atlantic. 

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Pete Buttigieg “would have been an ideal partner—if I were a straight white man,” Kamala Harris wrote in the upcoming book, according to The Atlantic.  (Yuri Gripas/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“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,” the excerpt of the book continued, referring to tapping a gay man for the ticket as risky. 

“And I think Pete also knew that—to our mutual sadness.”

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Media pundits and D.C. insiders took issue with Walz serving as her running mate following the November 2024 election loss to President Donald Trump, as they argued popular Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro or Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly or others could have better served the campaign against Trump. 

For Conrad, the excerpt gives a nod to Buttigieg as a “national leader” who could throw his hat in the presidential contender ring in the next cycle. Buttigieg previously ran for president in 2020 before dropping out and endorsing President Joe Biden to succeed Trump in the Oval Office. 

Sophia Danenberg, Shasti Conrad and Junelle Cavero attend “Our Future, Our Freedom” a DNC celebration concert in Chicago in 2024.  (Jeff Schear/Getty Images )

“We won’t know whether if she had added Pete as her running mate, if that would have changed anything,” Conrad said. “I don’t think it would have. But I think that it’s a, you know, a good sort of nod towards Pete that he is a national leader that we should be looking towards as potentially being someone that could … that could win the nomination in 2028.” 

The DNC vice chair, who is also chair of the Washington State Democratic Party, defended Walz as a “happy warrior” who “could speak the language of the working class.”

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“There’s a lot of calculations and amount of time about what we would need for a winning ticket,” she said. “Personally, I thought that, you know, Gov. Walz was a fantastic running mate for her. And when I met him last year, I told him, I jokingly said that we’d grown him in a lab, because he really felt to me like perfect for the moment.” 

Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Democratic vice-presidential nominee, are pictured during a campaign event at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis., US, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024.  (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In response to the excerpts, Buttigieg told the media Thursday that he believes in “giving Americans more credit” than basing their votes on “categories.” 

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“My experience in politics has been that the way that you earn trust with voters is based mostly on what they think you’re going to do for their lives, not on categories,” Buttigieg told Politico during a ribbon cutting ceremony at a Democratic Party office in Indiana. 

The book allows Harris to “speak her truth” on the wild 2024 election cycle, Conrad added, which includes excerpts acknowledging Biden “got tired” while on the campaign trail but denied any “big conspiracy at the White House to hide Joe Biden’s infirmity.”

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It’s “good that she’s sort of getting an opportunity to tell her version of events and be able to be more fully herself,” Conrad said. “That’s what I’ve been seeing from these excerpts. Is, you know, a real sense that she, I think, felt very managed and very kind of controlled for much of her time, both as VP and as a candidate. And this is sort of her opportunity to just … speak her truth.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Buttigieg and Harris, but did not immediately receive replies.