Openly gay mayor Pete Buttigieg has announced his candidacy for U.S. president.
Buttigieg, 37, is the son of an immigrant father from Malta. He is graduated from Harvard, earned a Rhodes Scholarship, and worked as a consultant at McKinsey. He moved back home to Indiana at age 29 to become the mayor of South Bend, making him the youngest mayor of a city with more than 100,000 people.
While still serving his first term, Buttigieg took a seven-month leave of office to serve with the Naval Reserve in Afghanistan in 2015. Less than a year later, Buttigieg came out as gay, but his sexuality didn’t stop South Bend voters from re-electing him to a second term with more than 80 percent of the vote. He married last year with teacher Chasten Glezman.
Buttigieg joined an expanding Democratic field with a long-shot bid that could see him become the first openly gay presidential nominee for a major party. He emphasised his youth and progressive nature in the video launching his 2020 presidential campaign.
Good luck Mr. Buttigieg!!!
Watch the video below:
Pete actually is a strong candidate for the Democratic nomination. Pete was reelected mayor in one of the most conservative midwestern rust-belt Cities in a Red State, South Bend Indiana. South Bend is well known as the home of Notre Dame University, America's most famous Catholic University and a football powerhouse - Pete's parents taught there. He has turned South Bend's fortunes around with major new investment and development. Bringing voters back into the Democratic Party fold in places like South Bend, and in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, and even Indiana - states that President Obama won in his Presidential bid (Indiana in 2008) and Hillary Clinton lost to Trump are crucial for any Democratic chance in 2020. Before we write off Pete by saying that Americans will never vote for any gay person as President, the highly respected Pew poll reported in 2016 that 74% of Americans were prepared to do so- a number which has surely increased since the last poll was taken. In fact, Americans were about as accepting of gay or lesbian candidates as they were of Mormon, evangelical, and long-term Washington politicians, and more accepting of them than candidates who admitted to extra marital affairs (like our current President perhaps) -- you can find the survey here. http://www.pewforum.org/2016/01/27/faith-and-the-2016-campaign/
ReplyDeletePete has a new book coming out, The Shortest Way Home. It will be released on February 12 and can be pre-ordered on Amazon and other booksellers. As of today, it is the #1 new released in the Government category.
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times has just reviewed it here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/books/review/pete-buttigieg-shortest-way-home.html
You can buy a copy here:
By Luigi C: Would be great! He's handsome too!
ReplyDeleteBy Charles Sturdivant: YES YES!
ReplyDeleteBy George Pendarbes: 👍 Good!
ReplyDelete