The rise and fall of Pete Buttigieg

By Lucie Peyrebrune

(Sydney Hastings-Wilkins)

Silver Spring, Md. -- Former progressive presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, nicknamed “Mayor Pete” by the citizens of South Bend, Indiana, where he is mayor, believed that millennial voters felt isolated from government, and that he was the one who could give them a voice. “I’m a millennial, and I feel like that’s who we need to have in the White House right now,” said Buttigieg. “Millennials feel isolated from government recently and that’s why they haven’t been voting in large numbers in past elections, because, you know, they have to decide between two baby boomers who they don’t feel like represent them.”

Buttigieg thought that the fact that he was a millennial would help him relate to the issues that his fellow millennials are facing that no other generation has yet to face. “We are the generation who are going to be first to have to deal with the reality of climate change… the first to not be better off than our parents materially if nothing changes,” said Buttigieg. “This is the generation that needs representation from one of their own, someone who understands their issues.”

He felt that one of the main reasons that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election was because she lost the support of many millennial voters for the Democratic Party. He thought that his ability to appeal to this underrepresented demographic would help him win the election, along with his appeal to conservative voters.

“I’m a progressive, but I come from a very socially conservative area in South Bend,” said Buttigieg. Despite the fact that he does tend to lean in a more liberal direction, he won the mayorship in conservative South Bend with eighty percent of the vote.

Other democratic politicians doubted Buttigieg’s ability to win, however. They were afraid that by entering the race, he would take away votes from Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic Party’s official candidate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who supported Buttigieg before he declared, soon retracted her support because she felt that the election would easily be won by Tim Scott, the republican candidate, if liberal voters were forced to split their votes between Warren and Buttigieg.

Buttigieg also struggled to find a running mate. He asked several Democratic politicians, such as Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Barack Obama, and Andrew Yang, two of whom are ineligible to be vice president, and they all declined his request. He asked Mark Zuckerberg as well, who also declined.

Members of Warren’s own campaign team strongly discouraged Buttigieg from running prior to his announcement, as well. “You are ruining the Democratic Party,” said Dana Graham, Warren’s campaign manager to Buttigieg on his way to declare. Buttigieg replied that if he didn’t run, the election would end the same way as it had in 2016.

Despite the animosity between Warren’s campaign team and Buttigieg, the two candidate’s policies were very similar. “I support a lot of Elizabeth Warren’s policy, however, I’m concerned with the fact that she doesn’t represent millennial voters and many conservative voters,” said Buttigieg. “She stated she would not go on FOX News when she was asked to, and I can understand her reasoning, … but, if you ignore the viewers of FOX News and the viewers of other media outlets that don’t share our world view, then you are surrendering the ability to speak directly to millions of American voters, and I feel like that’s dangerous.”

Buttigieg acknowledged that due to his young age, he might come across as inexperienced, but believed that this was not the case. “I have more military experience than any person to step into that office since George H.W. Bush. I have more executive experience than the president and the vice president,” he said. Although, given who is in the White House right now, it should come as no surprise that any of the candidates have more experience than him.

However, due to his realizations that with he and Warren both running neither of them would be able to win, Buttigieg rescinded his candidacy and will be joining Warren’s campaign team. If she wins, he will be seriously considered to be a member of her cabinet as secretary of state and ambassador to the United Nations.