Indiana mayor Pete Buttigrieg is no longer running for president in 2020. Here’s what you need to know about the openly gay politician who just dropped out of the race.
Pete Buttigieg, 38, is no longer one to watch in 2020. The openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, previously announced he was running for president but officially dropped out of the race on Sunday, Mar. 1 after a loss in the South Carolina primary. The loss led to Pete cancelling plans for back-to-back appearances in Texas, which he addressed in his speech. “So a little bit of news for you about our flight,” he said on Sunday, Mar. 1. “We’re making a change in our travel plans and traveling to South Bend rather than to Texas. We’re going to be making an announcement there about the future of the campaign and we are looking forward to sharing with our supporters and with the country where we’re going from here. That is why you will find we are heading in a different direction.” A Buttigieg staffer then confirmed that he would be announcing the suspension of his campaign, stating that he “doesn’t want to move on.”
Since, President Donald Trump, 73, has taken to Twitter to respond. “Pete Buttigieg is OUT. All of his SuperTuesday votes will go to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play – NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!” he posted on Sunday, Mar. 1.
If you don’t live in the Indiana area, you might be asking: who is Pete Buttigieg? Check out these 5 key facts to know about him.
1. Pete is the openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He launched an exploratory committee for the 2020 presidential elections on Jan. 22. If he were to have won the Democratic nomination, he would have been the first-ever gay nominee. Pete married his husband, Chasten Glezman, last summer, according to the Chicago Tribune.
2. He took office at the young age of 29! At the time, he was youngest mayor of a U.S. city with at least 100,000 residents. Pete announced in Dec. 2018 that he was not going to seek a third term as the mayor of South Bend, his hometown, fueling speculation that he was going to run for a higher office. Since first taking office as mayor, he has helped take South Bend to new heights. “When I arrived in office at the beginning of this decade, the national press said that our city was dying,” he said in his announcement video. “People on the outside didn’t believe our city had a future.” He also added, “We propelled our city’s comeback by taking our eyes off the rearview mirror, being honest about change, and insisting on a better future.”
3. He is a veteran. Pete was an intelligence officer with the U.S. Navy Reserve and was deployed to Afghanistan for 7 months, according to Business Insider. He also went to Harvard University and was a Rhodes scholar.
4. In his announcement video, he said the U.S. needs a “fresh start.” Pete said: “I belong to a generation that is stepping forward right now. We’re the generation that lived through school shootings, that served in the wars after 9/11, and we’re the generation that stands to be the first to make less than our parents unless we do something different… We can’t just polish off a system so broken. It is a season for boldness and a focus on the future.”
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
5. He came out in a op-ed piece in 2015. “I was well into adulthood before I was prepared to acknowledge the simple fact that I am gay,” he wrote in the South Bend Tribune. “It took years of struggle and growth for me to recognize that it’s just a fact of life, like having brown hair, and part of who I am.”
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
