Biden to pick Buttigieg as transportation chief
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to pick Pete Buttigieg to head the Transportation Department.
WASHINGTON >> Presidentelect Joe Biden is expected to pick former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg to head the Transportation Department, according to three people familiar with the plans.
Buttigieg, one of Biden’s rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, was a breakout star of the primaries, sharing victory in the nation’s first caucus with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. He suspended his campaign before Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden. The three people confirmed the news to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they didn’t want to publicly preempt the president- elect’s announcement. The Transportation Department helps oversee the nation’s highway system, planes, trains and mass transit and is poised to play a key role early in the incoming administration.
Buttigieg is the former mayor of Indiana’s fourth largest city, holding the position from 2012 to 2020. He also served a seven-month deployment as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan. With his presidential campaign, he became the first openly gay man to become — however briefly — a leading presidential candidate. He has been married to his husband, Chasten, since 2018.
LGBTQ rights groups immediately spoke out in praise of Biden’s selection of Buttigieg.
“Pete’s nomination is a new milestone in a decades
long effort to ensure LGBTQ people are represented throughout our government — and its impact will reverberate well-beyond the department he will lead,” said Annise Parker, president and CEO of the LGBTQ Vic
tory Institute. “It distances our nation from a troubled legacy of barring out LGBTQ people from government positions and moves us closer to the Presidentelect’s vision of a government that reflects America.”