Indiana mayor, 37, runs for president
The mayor of a small Indiana city and a rising star in Democratic circles became the latest to join a bustling field for his party’s presidential nomination.
South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg launched his campaign for president with a video message promising to bring a “fresh start” to the White House.
“The reality is there’s no going back,” Buttigieg said in the video. “There’s no such thing as ‘again’ in the real world. We can’t look for greatness in the past.”
The 37-year-old military veteran has been a rising figure in national politics since his unsuccessful 2017 run for Democratic National Committee chairman. He’s relatively unknown on the national level and faces an uphill battle in a primary field dominated by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and other betterknown leaders in the party.
He’s been left off many national polls, including the Morning Consult and Politico poll released Tuesday.
In his video, he points to national headlines that once called South Bend a dying city. The city of 100,000 has come back, he said, “by taking our eyes off the rear-view mirror.”
South Bend’s unemployment rate tumbled from about 10 percent at the start of Buttigieg’s tenure to less than 4 percent late last year. The economic turnaround is a blueprint for what could be done across America, he said.
Buttigieg, 29 when he was elected, is the youngest mayor of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents.
The Rhodes scholar and former officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve worked for consulting firm McKinsey before becoming mayor of the city, which is home to the University of Notre Dame.
Buttigieg served a tour in Afghanistan in 2014. Wednesday’s campaign video includes photos of him wearing camouflage fatigues.
Should he emerge ahead of other Democratic hopefuls, Buttigieg would be the first openly gay major-party presidential nominee.
In his video, Buttigieg uses his age as a way to connect with young voters.
“I belong to a generation that is stepping forward right now,” Buttigieg says. “We’re the generation that lived through school shootings, that served in wars after 9/11, and we’re the generation that stands to be the first to make less than our parents unless we do something different.”
The video shows Buttigieg and his husband, a middle school teacher, in their kitchen, arms around each other, and on the couch with a dog. Buttigieg came out as gay in 2015 and married Chasten Glezman in June.
Pundits don’t give Buttigieg much of a chance, but they understand why he’s taking one anyway.
“Even if he doesn’t earn the nomination, he will continue to raise his national profile,” said Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics.
Larry Sabato, a longtime election analyst at the University of Virginia, suggested Buttigieg has few options for higher office in Republican-dominated Indiana. “He’s stuck as mayor of South Bend,” Sabato said, “so what does he do for an encore? He’s decided he’s running for president. He’s a long shot, but so was Donald Trump.”