During a recent appearance on “The Bulwark” podcast, Mark Cuban revealed he was invited to submit himself for consideration to become former Vice President Kamala Harris‘ running mate in the 2024 presidential election. However, the “Shark Tank” star, an outward supporter of the Harris campaign, turned the offer down.
Interviewer Tim Miller opened the segment by prefacing that he had heard rumors at MSNBC that Cuban was tapped to join Harris on the campaign trail.
“There was some green room gossip at MSNBC,” Miller said. “I wouldn’t tell you this if it wasn’t pretty good. Somebody I kind of trust said that they asked you to send in VP vetting papers and you said, ‘No, the list would be too long.’ Is that true?”
Cuban confirmed the rumors to be true and elaborated on his decision to bow out of the race.
“The second part of that, my response was I’m not very good as the number two person,” Cuban explained. “And so if the last thing we need is me telling Kamala, you know, the president that, ‘No, that’s a dumb idea.’ Right? And I’m not real good at shaking hands and kissing babies.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was the one ultimately selected to run alongside Harris. There was speculation that her runner-up choices would’ve been Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, former governor of North Carolina Roy Cooper or Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Donald Trump, who went on to win the 2024 election, selected JD Vance as his vice president.
