From NBC News: Pete Buttigieg gains with crowds, TV spots & campaign cash
Buttigieg, a military veteran and Rhodes scholar, was the longest of long shots when he announced a presidential exploratory committee in January.
He has now received enough individual contributions to qualify for a spot on the Democratic debate stage this summer.
But there’s still plenty of work to do, starting with raising money and hiring staff. Buttigieg said his goal early on was to raise $1 million by the end of the first quarter on March 31, adding, “We’re definitely there.”
Buttigieg also plans to double the size of his roughly 20-person team in the new few weeks, in preparation for an official campaign launch.
Buttigieg believes he’s gaining support because people are looking for something different and a more hopeful message to combat President Donald Trump.
Read more: www.nbcnews.com/…
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From The Hill: Buttigieg shows signs of emerging from the Democratic pack
Pete Buttigieg, the relatively unknown mayor of South Bend, Ind., is showing signs that he could emerge as a serious contender in the 2020 race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The first piece of evidence signaling the 37-year-old Buttigieg could break from the pack chasing a group of big-name candidates came from an Emerson Polling survey this weekend that showed him trailing only former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic race in Iowa.
“The Buttigieg Boomlet is real,” added Democratic strategist Christy Setzer. “He’s everywhere, he’s authentic and he’s interesting and counterintuitive in his message — all of which makes him both a media darling and a serious source of intrigue for primary voters.”
Read more: thehill.com/…
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CBS News: Pete Buttigieg gaining momentum in 2020 race
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MSNBC: DOJ Health care move “reminds us why we're Democrats”
Transcript: www.msnbc.com/...
Hayes: I want to turn now to another potential 2020 Democratic presidential contender South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Mayor, I`ll ask you the same question. Were you surprised at all by the move by the Department of Justice which is fairly irregular or the timing to go full in on calling for the ACA to be entirely struck down?
Buttigieg: There`s a matter of policy I`m not surprised because this seems to be the position they hold deep down. Just take this health care coverage away from millions of Americans. As a matter of political strategy, I`m a little bit surprised because you know most Americans want this. And so at this moment when they were going to take a victory lap around what was happening in Washington, suddenly they`re reminding us why so many of us are Democrats.
You know, one thing I`ve been thinking about is the amazing shift between 2010 when I was a young nominee for state treasurer and watching as a Democrat on the ticket how we were getting absolutely beat up. I mean, health care, the ACA, there`s a toxic issue for Democrats. And then by 2018, it was the winning issue for Democrats. What happened in those years? Well, it`s very simple. The bill was actually implemented and people liked it. You know, back in 2010 they`re talking about all these theoretical things that might be like death panels. By 2018 in the town halls that happen then, you had regular Americans getting in the faces of members of Congress saying this is what this bill has done to make my life better.
And it turns out it`s just harder to lie to somebody about their everyday life. So the idea that they would want to do this is a little strange to me politically but again this is their policy. They call themselves mystified that the president thinks this will help them become the party of healthcare. I don`t know how you can become the party of healthcare when you`re now making it abundantly clear that your position on healthcare is to take it away from millions of Americans.
Hayes: You know, it`s interesting you bring up that 2010 race in which you were running statewide on – for treasurer and lost that race. There`s two ways to think about that right? So one is that people didn`t know what it was and they saw ObamaCare and liked it, the other is that voters are extremely risk-averse with respect to health care no matter what right? They don`t like changes and they are worried about it. And how much does that factor in your thinking about where the health care system should go next?
Buttigieg: Well, it`s one reason that I think the glide path toward a Medicare for all or single-payer environment should be what I would call Medicare for all who want it not just because it might be easier for people to swallow but also just practically. You know, anybody – any politician who goes around raising hopes about Medicare for all and I believe in Medicare for all, but any of us who allows those words to escape our lips ought to have a very credible, very clear path and plan about how we`re supposed to get from here to there. The way I would do it would be to take a version of Medicare, make it available on the exchanges as a kind of public option, and then if people like me are right that this is not only going to be more widespread coverage but also better more cost-effective than this corporate patchwork system we have now, then people are going to very quickly gravitate toward it.
Hayes: I`ve heard that argument, I`ve heard a lot more people. Kirsten Gillibrand the other day on a town hall making a similar argument. They saw that as a glide path. But if you`re right and if Kirsten Gillibrand is right and others who support this plan are right, won`t the health insurance industry fight that just as hard as they would fight just outright Medicare for all if they know that`s eventually where it`s going to go?
Buttigieg: Well, if they fight it by actually coming up with something better, that would be nice but that`s not what we`re seeing. We have a system now that is better than the system ten years ago but still not good enough. Too many Americans are underinsured and the American – this system is just unbelievably inefficient. We`re paying more for worse
outcomes.
So, of course, they`re going to fight it from a profitability perspective. I think they`re making a lot off the status quo. But if it`s the right thing to do, if most Americans get that it`s the right thing to do, then we should find the courage of our convictions and go out there and talk about it especially when this is not a matter of competing plans.
It`s a bit like climate. You know and they`re picking on the Green New Deal framework. But it`s not the Democratic plan versus the Republican plan, it`s a Democratic plan versus no plan at all.
Hayes: You`re – you`ve been the mayor of South Bend now for I think this is your eighth year if I`m not mistaken. It`s a relatively small city. It`s considerably smaller than my home borough of The Bronx. The U.S. healthcare system is 330 million people inordinately complex, far more complex than I can get my arms around. Why should someone trust that you with the experience you have would be able to actually navigate the complexities of that system?
Buttigieg: Because we need leadership that speaks for the communities including industrial Midwestern communities like mine, and for that matter rural communities that have felt left out of the process politically in policy-wise for a long time. I`m not applying to be the director of CMS. I`m talking about the political leadership that is needed in this country and in this party in order to move us out of the situation we`ve been in.
And I would argue that a mayor of a city of any size especially in the strong mayor system we have here in South Bend. Somebody who has to alternate hour by hour from dealing with an economic development puzzle to responding to a racially sensitive officer-involved shooting has skills that are certainly a lot more relevant than the current president`s skills, but also I would argue no less relevant than even a senior member of the Senate who perhaps has never in their lives managed more than a hundred people.
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