Pete Buttigieg: Who is He and What is His Campaign About?
By DEANNA REYNOLDS
With twelve people running for the democratic nomination, many people have never heard the name “Pete Buttigieg” before. As one of the many candidates, his name can get lost in the sea of online articles and information. However, he is becoming more prevalent in the media due to his status and his campaign. As of October 29, 2019, he is the 4th top polling democratic candidate.
Buttigieg’s campaign is particularly noticeable, because he is the first openly gay democratic candidate running, and if he won the presidency, he would overtake Teddy Roosevelt’s record as the youngest American president, as he is 37 years old.
Buttigieg is mayor to a small city in the Midwest, South Bend, Indiana, with around 100,000 residents. He was elected mayor in 2011, re elected in 2015 with 80% of the vote, and is in his 8th and final year in office, according to Pete for America. He currently resides in South Bend, along with his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, and his two dogs, Buddy and Truman.
In addition to being mayor, Buttigieg is a Rhodes scholar, and a graduate of Harvard and Oxford, who speaks seven different languages, including Norwegian, Spanish, French, and Maltese. He is also a veteran, who worked as a naval intelligence officer, deployed in Afghanistan. He is one of the few Democratic candidates who speaks of his religion, Episcopalian.
Recently, his campaign has been gaining momentum, especially after the fourth democratic debate on October 15th. Since launching his campaign in April of this year, he has amassed $51.5 million dollars from his supporters, and currently has a national polling average of 7%, as noted by The New York Times.
As a millennial, he is calling for generational change in the White House, and wants to create a new era of American politics. His main issues are slowing climate change, pushing for racial justice, reforming the Supreme Court, and creating Medicare for all who want it, among many issues, including LGBT+ equality, women’s equality, gun control, and criminal justice reform, according to his website, Pete for America.
He is calling to end the divisiveness of American politics. His plan for reforming the Supreme Court would make the court more non-partisan. To elaborate, The New York Times reports, one plan he has mentioned is establishing 10 permanent justices with 5 rotating justices, each one being appointed with unanimous approval of the 10 permanent. NBC News adds, he devised his idea from a heavily researched article from the Yale Law Journal.
His other main plan is called “Medicare for All Who Want It.” He plans to create a safe, affordable, public healthcare option, available to all Americans. His plan would allow people to choose to either stay on their private plan, or to switch to the public option, which allows every American to have a reliable and safe healthcare plan, which will insure physical and mental health costs.
AsButtigieg himself put it, “I’m definitely the only left-handed-Maltese-American- Episcopalian-gay-millennial-war-veteran in the race, but I think profile is just what gets you that first look.”
Works Cited:
Epstein, Reid J. "Pete Buttigieg: Who He Is and What He Stands for." The New
York Times, 27 Oct. 2019. NYTimes.com, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/
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Lederman, Josh. "Inside Pete Buttigieg's Plan to Overhaul the Supreme Court."
NBCNews.com, 3 June 2019, www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/
inside-pete-buttigieg-s-plan-overhaul-supreme-court-n1012491. Accessed 29
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Lee, Jasmine C., et al. "Which Democrats Are Leading the 2020 Presidential
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"Medicare for All Who Want It." PeteForAmerica.com, Pete for America,
peteforamerica.com/policies/health-care/. Accessed 28 Oct. 2019.
"Meet Pete." PeteForAmerica.com, Pete For America, peteforamerica.com/
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