'They call me Mayor Pete': Buttigieg launches 2020 presidential run
'They call me Mayor Pete': Buttigieg launches 2020 presidential run
South Bend mayor makes announcement at rally in his hometown, saluting his husband and setting out his vision
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, flashes a thumbs-up after speaking at a meet and greet event at MadHouse Coffee on Monday, April 8, 2019, in Las Vegas. Photograph: Bizuayehu Tesfaye/AP
Pete Buttigieg officially launched his run for the White House on Sunday, against a backdrop of improving poll numbers and increasing national interest. The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, the fourth-largest city in Indiana, madethe announcement at an afternoon rally in his hometown.
Buttigieg said he was running “to tell a different story than ‘Make America Great Again’. Because there’s a myth being sold … the myth that we can stop the clock and turn it back.
“The problem is that they’re telling us to look for greatness in all the wrong places. As South Bend has shown, there is no such thing as an honest politics that revolves around the word again. It is time to walk away from the politics of the past and towards something totally different.”
“They call me mayor Pete. I’m a proud son of South Bend, Indiana, and I am running for president of the United States.”
Earlier, a big day for the openly gay Rhodes scholar Afghanistan veteran broke with a new website, peteforamerica.com, a New York magazine cover – headline, “Wonder Boy” – and an interview with the tabloid website TMZ in which he revealed a love for “classic rock” like Creedence Clearwater Revival and was duly given a guitar.
“Mayor Pete didn’t disappoint,” TMZ said, “as he started riffin’ Hey Joe by Hendrix!”
On a more serious note, Buttigieg was asked what he would do if he made it to a presidential campaign against Donald Trump in which homophobia became a factor.
“I’m kind of used to that by now,” Buttigieg said. “I’m from Indiana, I’m gay as a … I don’t know, think of something really gay, that’s how gay I am. So I’m used to bullying. I think you confront it initially and then you move on.
“So when [Trump] does something, not just targeting the LGBT community but all the things about immigrants, putting down working people, people of colour, whoever’s being attacked at that moment, you’ve gotta confront that but you can’t let that be the end of the story.
“When he lies or does something wrong you confront that and then you change the channel, change the subject back to you.”
At his launch event, Buttigieg thanked his husband of one year, Chasten Buttigieg. “And to Chasten, my love,” he said – interjecting in response to cheers, “Yeah I’m pretty fond of him too” – [thank you] “for giving me the strength to do this and the grounding to be myself as we go.”
Advertisement
He also name-checked his two dogs, Buddy and Truman.
Since forming an exploratory committee in January, Buttigieg has made a successful effort to stand out from a crowded Democratic field. He has published a well-received memoir, toured TV studios and early voting states and performed impressively as a fundraiser, sailing past the number of donors needed to make the debates.
Such success brings with it a merciless spotlight. Some observers point out that third-place polling in Iowa and New Hampshire – behind Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden but ahead of heavyweights like Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Beto O’Rourke – means little a year away from the primary.
Others are beginning to focus on Buttigieg’s record: on Saturday CNN published a report headlined: “Pete Buttigieg pushed an aggressive plan to revitalize South Bend. Not everyone felt its benefits.”
Pete Buttigieg would be the youngest president ever, at 39, if he were to win in 2020. Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Also up for debate is whether the mayor’s mix of a strong personal story, hazily expressed progressive priorities and faith-based appeal to middle America may prove too good – or lightweight – to be true.
In an interview published on Sunday, Buttigieg told the New York Times he was “focused on the interaction of ‘narrative and politics’ and how parties connect with people beyond policy decrees”.
“The story that we tell,” the Times quoted him as saying, “not just about government but about ourselves, and the story we tell people about themselves and how they fit in, really grounds our politics.”
The Times found approving voices. Dan Glickman, a secretary of agriculture under Bill Clinton who taught at Harvard when Buttigieg was there in the mid-2000s, said the mayor had developed a “way of articulating a vision which is progressive but not off-putting”.
Advertisement
George Lakoff, a Berkeley linguist with whom the young Buttigieg corresponded, said: “He knows how to talk plainly. Usually, Democrats are saying: What are your 10 most important policy areas? And he doesn’t do that.”
Buttigieg is undoubtedly having a moment. That meant that in the days before his big launch his expression of support for Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota congresswoman targeted by Trump and Republicans for her remarks about 9/11, was feverishly parsed and debated.
“The president today made America smaller,” he wrote. “It is not enough to condemn him; we must model something better.”
The campaign launch was meant to begin that process, to present Buttigieg as a young president – he would be the youngest ever, at 39, if he were to win – who might bridge America’s partisan divide.
This week, the Guardian canvassed attitudes in his home state, particularly among people of similar sincerely held faith, among them supporters of Mike Pence, Trump’s vice-president who is also from Indiana.
Buttigieg is an Episcopalian. Pence is an evangelical with Catholic roots. The mayor has been critical of the vice-president’s support for Trump and for the way his Christianity shapes his politics.
Curt Smith, president of the Indiana Family Institute, an opponent of same-sex marriage, said of Buttigieg: “I wish he would stop attacking the vice-president’s faith. I think that’s dangerous. But I welcome this conversation about the so-called Christian left.
“…I think he could make a major contribution to the discourse in our country.”
Since you’re here…
… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading and supporting our independent, investigative reporting than ever before. And unlike many news organisations, we have chosen an approach that allows us to keep our journalism accessible to all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford.
The Guardian is editorially independent, meaning we set our own agenda. Our journalism is free from commercial bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. No one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. This is important as it enables us to give a voice to those less heard, challenge the powerful and hold them to account. It’s what makes us different to so many others in the media, at a time when factual, honest reporting is critical.
Every contribution we receive from readers like you, big or small, goes directly into funding our journalism. This support enables us to keep working as we do – but we must maintain and build on it for every year to come. Support The Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
About digitalstorm
No comments