Ken Salazar says in forthcoming memoir he considered a 2024 White House bid over border frustration

Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in an upcoming memoir that he considered launching a White House bid in 2024, framing the contemplation as a response to what he described as frustration with the Biden administration’s approach to the U.S. southern border with Mexico, according to reporting by The Hill. The Hill reported that Salazar’s account appears in his forthcoming book, Borderlands: My Fight for an Inclusive America, and that he wrote that he told himself, “I should run for president.” The same reporting attributes the book details to Politico’s coverage of the memoir. Salazar’s remarks, as described in the report, connect the presidential consideration to his view of the Biden administration’s border policy. The coverage does not identify any formal step toward candidacy such as filing paperwork, establishing a campaign committee, or seeking ballot access, and no such actions are described. The book is also the central vehicle for the statement. The Hill’s report does not cite an accompanying White House response, nor does it describe any official meeting or policy directive tied to Salazar’s contemplation. As a result, the episode appears to be a personal political reflection contained in a publication rather than an announced campaign. The memoir title and framing, as reported, indicate that the book is positioned as a broader argument tied to border politics rather than a narrow policy plan. Still, the immediate claim highlighted in the reporting concerns a potential presidential run in 2024 and the basis for that idea, namely frustration with the administration’s enforcement and management of the southern border. Border management has remained a high-salience issue for federal authorities, with ongoing public debate over asylum processing, humanitarian screening capacity, border security enforcement, and the coordination role of federal agencies and states. The Hill’s report does not provide new policy figures or a specific legislative or administrative action tied to Salazar’s remarks. If and when the memoir is published, the detailed language of Salazar’s account will be available to readers and researchers, and it may clarify what he specifically attributes to the administration’s border handling. Until then, the available information is limited to the reported statement within the book and the circumstances described by the reporting outlet.