Pete Buttigieg is the latest candidate to jump into the race for the White House on the Democratic side saying “Right now our country needs a fresh start.” And there is no denying he is a fresh face, so fresh that today is likely the first time most people have heard his name. He is currently in his eighth and final year as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He is noteworthy for several reasons:
- He was just 29 years old when he was elected Mayor in 2011
- He was lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve
- IndyStar.com reports, “In 2014, he took an unpaid leave of absence from the mayor’s office to serve in Afghanistan during a seven-month deployment”
- He came out publicly as gay in 2015 and married his partner last year
- He is a Harvard graduate and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and graduate of Harvard
- He lives in the same neighborhood where he grew up
- He ran to be Democratic National Committee chairman in 2017 (he lost)
I launched a presidential exploratory committee because it is a season for boldness and it is time to focus on the future. Are you ready to walk away from the politics of the past?
Join the team at https://t.co/Xlqn10brgH. pic.twitter.com/K6aeOeVrO7
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) January 23, 2019
A Harvard grad, Rhodes Scholar and Naval Reservist who served in Afghanistan, Buttigieg came out as gay in the pages of the local newspaper in 2015 and later live-streamed his marriage ceremony on YouTube. In June 2016, Frank Bruni of The New York Times traveled to South Bend for a glowing profile of Buttigieg titled “The First Gay President?” In an interview with the New Yorker in the final days of his presidency, Barack Obama named Buttigieg as one of four Democrats who would lead the Democratic Party into the future.