The next presidential election is three years away. Recent reports about early concern over whether President Joe Biden will run for reelection in 2024 and about tension between potential 2024 rivals, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Vice President Kamala Harris are, to some extent, standard Washington gossip that can be safely ignored. Still, there may be something more than that.

Buttigieg is clearly very ambitious, ran an impressive presidential campaign in 2020 and has only strengthened his political skills since then. Harris, as the vice president, is a leading contender to be the face of the post-Joe Biden Democratic Party. Each may see the other as standing in their way as 2024 approaches. This is particularly important because the 79-year-old Biden, despite wisely sending signals that he will seek reelection in 2024, may decide that he doesn’t want to run three years from now.

If Biden does run, as an incumbent, he has an advantage. But if he chooses not to, that doesn’t mean Democrats are doomed.

A primary campaign between Harris and Buttigieg could pit two key Democratic constituencies against each other: African Americans, particularly African American women, and LGBTQ voters. The impact of that fight would be even worse if it began in 2023 and took over the second half of Biden’s current term.

Fortunately, this is a problem that can be easily solved without either politician having to give up anything lasting. Harris and Buttigieg instead could agree that, if Biden does not run again, they would run together in 2024, with Harris the nominee for president and Buttigieg for vice-president. This could put an end to whatever feuding exists between them now, while giving the Democratic Party a very strong ticket in 2024 that would seem like a natural continuation of Biden’s first term.

Live look at the Democrats’ battlefield preparation before running Harris and Buttigieg after the events of 2021: