Why not?
To say there’s a crowded Democratic presidential field is putting it mildly. There’s are least fifteen announced Democratic presidential candidates – and that’s a number that doesn’t include former Vice President Joe Biden, who’s rumored to be considering a run in 2020.
In such a crowded field, it would be easy to have a hard time figuring out which is the best candidate to support, and while I’m not saying South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg better or worse than any of the other announced or possible Democratic presidential candidates, I certainly think he’s worth a long look.
In a Democratic primary still haunted by the ghosts of 2016, Buttigieg stands out in part because he can’t be slotted into the familiar narratives. His unique profile is unlike any other presidential candidate, ever: He’s a married gay man, a devout Episcopalian, a Harvard graduate, a McKinsey alumnus, a Rhodes Scholar, a skilled pianist, and a Navy veteran who took a six-month leave of absence as mayor to serve in Afghanistan. He’s also hard to pin down politically. He wants to abolish the Electoral College and is even open to the idea of packing the Supreme Court. He’s a supporter of Medicare for All, though not for abolishing private insurance. An advocate of “democratic capitalism” and thoroughly earnest, he sometimes seems like a mix between Elizabeth Warren and former Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Except he’s not; he’s sui generis.
Pete Buttigieg may be a longshot given his relative lack of name recognition in comparison to candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker, and former Rep. (and current flavor of the month) Beto O’Rourke but I don’t think Buttigieg should be disregarded. The most recent Emerson University poll in Iowa has Buttigieg in third place among Democratic presidential candidates/possible candidates, ahead of Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, and Kamala Harris.
If you’d like to learn more about Mayor Pete Buttigieg you can check him out at his website.
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