Speaking at an LGBTQ Victory Fund brunch in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, possible 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg discusses all the problems he wrestled with when he came out as gay.
Pete Buttigieg is emerging as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination
The mayor of South Bend, Indiana is rising in the polls
PETE BUTTIGIEG does a good line in self-deprecation. He knows that many voters do not know who he is. On the stump he describes how a woman at an airport asked if he was a reporter covering a political campaign. He jokes about his lack of physical height. He speaks of the “audacity of someone like me”, meaning a 37-year-old mayor of a smallish city joining the 2020 race for the presidency. He also tells crowds he is not a “prototypical candidate”, saying his youth is a virtue that makes him focus on long-term concerns, like climate change.
For a man with a hard-to-pronounce Maltese name and little experience of national politics, Mr Buttigieg is enjoying an extraordinarily good start to his campaign. His political memoir is selling fast. Television news shows and other media are following him closely. That interest is driven in part by the novelty of his having a husband, Chasten.