If you haven’t heard of Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and rising star for the Democratic party, it’s well worth your while to dig into his history. He's a veteran of Afghanistan. He’s a Rhodes Scholar. He’s 37 years old. And make no mistake: He doesn’t think he’s too young to run for president.
The mayor gained national attention on Sunday evening when he participated in a televised town hall panel, alongside Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, where the three longshot hopefuls chatted with CNN’s Jake Tapper about their big ideas. Buttigieg did so well, he received $600,000 in donations in just 24 hours. Impressed? You should be.
So let’s talk about his background and some of his more unique ideas for the party, and the country. Oh, and avocado toast.
1. He supports a guaranteed income.
Buttigieg is a huge advocate for the concept of a guaranteed income for all Americans. In the town hall, he didn’t etch out an entire plan of how this would shake out, but he did make a point to describe the necessity of such an income. For example, labor that often goes unpaid, such as caring for an elderly or ill relative, would be lessened with such an income, giving caretakers (especially women) more economic mobility.
2. He wants to restructure the Supreme Court.
This is a fairly radical idea, but he’s not the first person to float it. "What we need to do is stop every [Supreme Court] vacancy from being this apocalyptic ideological battle," Buttigieg said during the televised town hall. He wants to expand the Supreme Court from its current number of seats (nine) to 15. Interestingly, President Roosevelt also raised this idea, though he was shot down because critics accused him of trying to “pack” the courts.
3. He can’t stand Mike Pence—and for good reason.
Buttigieg had the misfortune of working with Pence directly when the current VP was governor of Indiana. Buttigieg says he "used to at least believe" that Pence "believes in our institutions and was not personally corrupt, but then how could he get on board with this president?"
Touching on Pence’s proclaimed Christian faith, Buttigieg continued: "His interpretation of scripture is pretty different than mine to begin with. My understanding of scripture is that it's about protecting the stranger and the prisoner and the poor person and that idea. That's what I get in the gospel when I'm at church and his has a lot more to do with sexuality ... and a certain view of rectitude."
He also slammed Pence as a “cheerleader for the porn star presidency,” perhaps the greatest one-liner yet.
4. He’s openly gay, married to his partner, and an explicit supporter of trans rights.
Buttigieg came out as gay in a public letter in the South Bend Tribune in 2015. Currently, he’s married to his husband, Chasten Buttigieg. If he became president, he’d be the first openly gay president in US history.
At the SXSW town hall, he advocated for a federal Equality Act “that would say that you cannot be fired just because of who you are or just because you love.” He also wants to end “the war on trans Americans.”
5. He’s proud to be a millennial.
“Some people think all there is to us is avocado toast or eating Tide Pods or whatever they're saying about us," said Buttigieg when speaking to Vice. "But we’re the generation with the most at stake. Our asses were out there in Afghanistan and Iraq, and I think we’ve earned place in this conversation."
Whether he’s likely to get the nomination this time or not, he’s absolutely right. Millennials have more than earned their place in the conversation, and there’s no end to factors at stake in this political climate.