Pete buttegieg handles the anti gay people at a speech
Pete Buttigieg: How a young, gay mayor became a Democratic star
In just a matter of a month, this 37-year-old - who would be the youngest and the first openly gay US president - has transformed himself from long-shot to legitimate contender for the White House.
Speaking to an audience gathered to spot him in Manchester, New Hampshire, he admits that his campaign has had a "really great few weeks".
"I'm mindful that this is a marathon, he says, "but we're certainly thrilled with the way our message has been resonating."
That is an understatement.
An improbable rise
A month ago, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was a political afterthought in a Democratic field that seems to be expanding by the date. That was before a well-received nationally televised town hall appearance that caught the attention of political commentators and a public that was, perhaps, in search of a fresh face.
Obama campaign veteran David Axelrod raved that Buttigieg in his television appearance was "crisp, thoughtful and relatable".
Andrew Sullivan of New York Magazine said the mayor might be the best possible Democratic mat
(Image credit: Illustrated | SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images, Rawpixel/iStock)
With more than 20 candidates making a case for why they should be the Democratic nominee for president, it might be tempting to see the whole thing as one giant circus. That's certainly been the mood on Twitter the last two nights.
Yet, as NBC's Chuck Todd pointed out, the team of candidates gathered in Miami is the most diverse ever to contend for the presidency — and how. With write down numbers of both women and non-white candidates vying for the nomination, the Democratic field has made history.
And for millions of LGBTQ Americans, including myself, seeing the first out candidate take the debate stage as a contender — and a stern one — for president was nothing short of monumental. That Pete Buttigieg, the gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, may have also emerged as one of the night's winners seems like a too-perfect culmination to Identity festival Month.
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Pete Buttigieg vs Donald Trump? Don't command out this lgbtq+ millennial mayor just yet
Pete Buttigieg is exactly who US political reporters yearn to write about.
He is not Donald Trump, for one thing. Nor is he Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.
One of a bloated (and still swelling) field of democratic 2020 contenders, Mr Buttigieg offers bored journalists a fresh face and a new name.
Yet there's more to his narrative.
If Mr Buttigieg was to be elected, he'd be the first to go from mayor to president — and the Mayor of a town roughly the size of Ballarat to boot.
He would be the youngest president and the first millennial, stepping into the office at age 39.
He'd be the first openly gay president.
Oh, and did we bring up he's also the underdog? Or at least he was. The media's fascination with Mr Buttigieg has, in change, fuelled support for his candidacy.
He went from polling at less than 1 per cent in February to hovering around 10 per cent in adv April.
For reference, Joe Biden has consistently held the uppermost spot around 29 per cent. Two state polls acquire seen Mr Buttigieg creep up into third.
He is generating intense online find i
How Pete Buttigieg handled anti-gay protesters shouting about Sodom and Gomorrah at Iowa rally
Protesters shouting about "Sodom and Gomorrah" interrupted South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday at an Iowa campaign rally.
Buttigieg hopes to get the first openly same-sex attracted president in American history.
One of the men who shouted about the biblical cities destroyed by God's wrath for their sinful ways was Randall Terry, a Christian activist who founded the anti-abortion rights group Operation Rescue. The organization says it split with him 18 years ago and now considers him too radical.
The crowd at the Des Moines rally drowned out Terry's shouts by cheering Buttigieg’s name.
"The good news is, the condition of my soul is in the hands of God, but the Iowa caucuses are up to you," an unshaken Buttigieg responded, pointing at the crowd.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny reported that Buttigieg was interrupted three times by protesters affiliated with Terry.
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Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg is riding in the back of a rented minivan to his last event of the day in South Carolina, munching on cold french fries and critiquing his stage performance so far.
The enthusiastic crowds of hundreds who’ve packed his first two stops have been much larger than the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and his team expected. It’s “wonderful,” he says, but the cheering and prolonged applause are messing with his delivery. Sometimes he neglects to pause, and his next words are drowned out. Other times people start clapping when he doesn’t expect it.
“I require to relearn the timing of my stump speech,” Buttigieg says. “I’ve been used to a format where I go in, there’s 50 people, I do my little spiel and then we own some Q&A and hopefully they walk away impressed. Now every one of these things we place on the calendar as a meet and greet is turning out to be a rally.”
Buttigieg, a military veteran and Rhodes scholar, was the longest of long shots when he announced a presidential exploratory committee in January. No mayor has ever been elected president, much less one