The Mayor Pete campaign

Like many political observers, I was not expecting anyone significant to drop out of the 2020 Democratic race between the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday. In that way, Pete Buttigieg managed to surprise everyone again.

Buttigieg attracted a unique strain of online antipathy. It began with a Current Affairs hit piece and proceeded all the way to the online snark that followed the news of his withdrawal.

Buttigieg seemed to inspire this outsize loathing for two interrelated reasons. The first is that he was the purest meritocrat running this year.

He also earned the unluckiest bounce of the primary season. We know now that he won the Iowa caucuses. It’s a stunning result for the youngest candidate and only gay man in the race.

He beat a former vice president and four sitting U.S. senators in the process.

Had this fact been known, say, the night of the caucuses, one could imagine that Buttigieg might have earned a slightly bigger bounce in New Hampshire, where he finished a close second to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Given where Pete Buttigieg started out in this race, he’s already won in many respects. He is now a national figure. He could run again in 2056 and he’d still be younger than Joe Biden is right now. He has time to build some trust with the communities that do not trust him right now.

Vox’s Zack Beauchamp noted that Buttigieg “appealed to a swath of highly educated white voters.” As someone who resembles that demographic, I hope that Buttigieg has a long and inspiring political career. America could do a lot worse.