Gay Democrat mayor joins race for the White House

Pete Buttigieg, a little known 37-year-old mayor, yesterday became the latest Democrat to join the race to become US president in 2020, declaring that America needs a ‘‘new generation’’ of leaders. Buttigieg, seen as a rank outsider, would become the country’s first openly gay president if he managed to win his party’s nomination and then defeat Donald Trump. The two-term mayor of South Bend, a city of 100,000 people in Indiana, was named by Barack Obama, the former president, on a list of gifted young Democrats in 2016.