(Update: I edited my title to change “.” to a “?”. My post wasn’t meant as an endorsement since I don’t know nearly enough about the guy. I meant it more as “hey, has anyone else heard about this guy? what do you think?)
A friend of mine posted a video segment of Pete Buttigieg, openly gay mayor of South Bend, IN, on the Colbert show. I’d never heard of the guy before but he is starting an exploratory committee to run as a Democratic candidate for President in 2020. I watched the segment and was really intrigued. How had I not heard of this guy before? Obama has. In fact, Obama mentioned Pete Buttigieg as one of the future stars of the Democratic Party and a potential contender for 2020. Watching this segment has piqued my interest quite a bit. Here is his segment on Colbert (I like his take on serving as an openly gay mayor in Indiana with Mike Pence as the Governor):
Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Late Show with Colbert
The Washington Post called Pete Buttigieg “the most interesting mayor you’ve never heard of”.
An abcnews article “Why Obama could think Pete Buttigieg is a possible 2020 contender”:
Obama thinks Buttigieg a possible 2020 contender
Below is an interview of Pete Buttigieg on PBS where he talks about the challenges he faced as mayor of South Bend. For example, right before he was elected Newsweek listed South Bend as “one of American’s dying cities”, he talks about how he approached this issue.
Pete Buttigieg on PBS "Overhead with Evan Smith"
I will definitely be keeping an eye on this guy. A Harvard graduate, Rhodes Scholar, Navy intelligence officer who served a 7-month deployment in Afghanistan, “came out” as openly gay while running for re-election (and won 80% of the vote). Voted national Mayor of the Year by govfresh.com. Very interesting candidate.