The Democrats’ new presumptive nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, has a tough task before her: In less than one hundred days, she has to rebuild a fractured party while making the case that she’s best suited for the top job. The good news is that she doesn’t have to do it alone. There’s a deep bench of potential vice-presidential candidates to complement her strengths and counteract her weaknesses. She has a once-in-a-generation shot at choosing an expert communicator and campaigner who can litigate her case quickly and effectively, all while bringing in new voters. She should choose Pete Buttigieg as her running mate.

I worked for Barack Obama off and on through both campaigns and his two terms in office. He won the presidency—twice—in part because of his ability to raise policy expectations and expand the electorate, mobilizing record participation from young Americans and other communities historically left out of the political process. That’s where, in 2024, Pete Buttigieg comes in. A son of the Midwest, Buttigieg is a former Rust Belt Mayor, a polyglot, and a Navy veteran, and for the past three and a half years, he has served as secretary of transportation. He has the highest name recognition and favorability of anyone on Vice President Harris’s shortlist. In last week’s Marist poll, he was also the top pick for suburban and rural voters (after Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, who says she is not interested in the job). Buttigieg also has a robust, intact fundraising and field network that hauled in $100 million during the last presidential cycle, largely through first-time donors.

But here’s where things get kicked up a notch: There is no other politician in either party who can effortlessly appear on Fox News and Bill Maher and TMZ Live. Buttigieg’s regular media interviews and viral congressional testimonies exemplify what an unafraid, sharply skilled leader he is. We shouldn’t underestimate the potential of this. Against manufactured chaos, he outlines policy and dismisses bad-faith questions without absolving his opponents of lessons in moral clarity. One example: Look at his refusal to take the bait on—and I feel very stupid as I’m typing this—a Fox News question about Marjorie Taylor Greene’s views on emasculation tied to electric vehicles. Buttigieg rejects false us-versus-them narratives. He’s respectful. He disarms with a physical smile and an intellectual shiv. Imagine him joining a President Harris for that version of America every day. Now imagine the bluster of J.D. Vance and Donald Trump.

Buttigieg’s engagement with voters who disagree with him gets results in practice, too. He won the 2020 Iowa caucuses by speaking regularly with moderate and conservative communities—without sacrificing his liberal policy positions. He ultimately won sixty-one of ninety-nine counties across the state, including those that flipped from Obama to Trump in the previous general election.