Tim Walz was asked to give some advice to his Democratic party about 2028, the Minnesota governor didn't hesitate. Three words: "Pick Pete Buttigieg."
Ouch. Not Kamala Harris. The woman who put him on the ticket.
Walz — who owes his entire national profile to Harris selecting him as her 2024 running mate — was asked a straightforward question about who should lead Democrats into the next presidential cycle. He could have been diplomatic. He could have dodged. Instead, he named the former Transportation Secretary and skipped right past the vice president he spent months campaigning alongside.
The backstory makes it worse. Harris wrote in her book that she past on her first choice, Pete Buttigieg as her VP pick, choosing Walz instead. At the time, the reasoning was that Harris wanted a straight male running mate to balance the ticket with a Black woman. So she picked Walz over Buttigieg and he picked Buttigieg over her.
The Democratic 2028 bench is already looking like a casting call where nobody wants the part. Josh Shapiro, Gavin Newsom, and Andy Beshear have all been floated. Harris, who failed to win a single primary delegate in 2020 before being installed as the nominee in 2024, is presumably still expecting a phone call. Walz just made sure everyone knows it won't be from him.
What makes the endorsement land isn't the politics — it's the proximity. This wasn't some Democratic strategist on cable news workshopping names. This was her running mate. The man who stood next to her at rallies, who defended her record on live television, who asked Americans to trust her judgment. That man looked at the field and said someone else should lead.
Buttigieg's actual electoral record is thin. He was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana — population roughly 103,000 — before running a presidential campaign that ended before Super Tuesday. His tenure at the Department of Transportation was defined mostly by supply chain crises and a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that he took days to acknowledge. The fact that Walz looked at the available options and still landed on Buttigieg tells you less about Buttigieg's strengths than about how Walz views everyone else on the list.
The Democratic Party spent 2024 telling voters that the Harris-Walz ticket represented the future. Unity. A new generation. The campaign merchandise is barely faded and half that ticket is already recruiting the replacement.
Harris cited wanting a straight male running mate as her reason for choosing Walz over Buttigieg. She got one. He lasted about eighteen months before publicly suggesting the party go with the other guy.