Pete Buttigieg presidential campaign, 2020

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2020 Presidential Election Date: November 3, 2020

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“	I launched a presidential exploratory committee because it is a season for boldness and it is time to focus on the future. Are you ready to walk away from the politics of the past?	”
—Pete Buttigieg

Pete Buttigieg is the Democratic mayor of the South Bend, Indiana. He announced he was running for president on January 23, 2019. On April 14, 2019, he formally kicked-off his campaign.

Buttigieg has focused his campaign on policy issues that he's implemented as mayor, such as connecting with the global economy through investing in advanced industries, data, technology, and higher education.

Prior to serving as mayor, Buttigieg worked as a consultant for McKinsey and Company. He serves as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and served a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan.

Buttigieg in the news

See also: Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing and Editorial approach to story selection for the Daily Presidential News Briefing

This section features five recent news stories about Buttigieg and his presidential campaign. For a complete timeline of Buttigieg's campaign activity, click here.

• April 24, 2019: Buttigieg received his first congressional endorsement from Virginia Rep. Don Beyer.

• April 23, 2019: Fox News announced that Buttigieg would participate in a town hall moderated by Chris Wallace on May 19 in Claremont, New Hampshire.

• April 20, 2019: Buttigieg spoke at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, addressing student debt and veterans.

• April 18, 2019: Buttigieg attended a fundraiser in New York City and appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

• April 17, 2019: More than 20 top Democratic bundlers are supporting Buttigieg, including 2004 John Kerry campaign official Steve Elmendorf, who raised $100,000 for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and former U.S. ambassador to Italy John Phillips, who raised $500,000 for Barack Obama in 2012.

Key campaign staff

The following chart shows key national and state campaign staffers for the Buttigieg presidential campaign and their political experience. If you are aware of staffers that should be included, please email us.

Pete Buttigieg presidential campaign staff, 2020
Staffer	Position	Previous experience
Mike Schmuhl	Campaign manager	2015 Buttigieg campaign 2011 Buttigieg campaign
Marcus Switzer	Finance director	2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, deputy national finance director 2012 Barack Obama campaign
Lis Smith	Political press coordinator	2016 Martin O'Malley campaign, deputy campaign manager 2012 Barack Obama campaign, director of rapid response

Campaign travel and appearances

The following map shows the number of monthly visits Buttigieg made to each state between January 2019 and November 2020. If you are aware of a campaign appearance not featured in this map, let Ballotpedia know by email at federal@ballotpedia.org.

Endorsements

This section lists noteworthy endorsements issued in this election, including those made by high-profile individuals and organizations, cross-party endorsements, and endorsements made by newspaper editorial boards. It also includes links to endorsement lists published on campaign websites, if available. If you are aware of endorsements that should be included, please email us.

Satellite spending

Satellite spending, commonly referred to as outside spending, describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.

This section lists satellite spending in this race reported by news outlets in alphabetical order. If you are aware of spending that should be included, please email us.

Campaign ads

This section shows advertisements released to support or oppose this candidate. This section is updated as advertisements are released. If you are aware of advertisements that should be included, please email us.

Campaign themes

As of February 21, 2019, Buttigieg did not have campaign themes published on his website. If you are aware of published campaign themes available elsewhere, let Ballotpedia know by email at federal@ballotpedia.org.

Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing

See also: Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing

The following section provides a timeline of Buttigieg's campaign activity beginning in January 2019. The entries, which come from Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing, are sorted by month in reverse chronological order.

2019

• April 2019 (click to collapse)

  April

  • April 24, 2019: Buttigieg received his first congressional endorsement from Virginia Rep. Don Beyer.

  • April 23, 2019: Fox News announced that Buttigieg would participate in a town hall moderated by Chris Wallace on May 19 in Claremont, New Hampshire.

  • April 20, 2019: Buttigieg spoke at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, addressing student debt and veterans.

  • April 18, 2019: Buttigieg attended a fundraiser in New York City and appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

  • April 17, 2019: More than 20 top Democratic bundlers are supporting Buttigieg, including 2004 John Kerry campaign official Steve Elmendorf, who raised $100,000 for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and former U.S. ambassador to Italy John Phillips, who raised $500,000 for Barack Obama in 2012.

  • April 16, 2019: The Hill reported that Buttigieg was in discussions to participate in a televised Fox News town hall. Several other candidates had discussed a willingness to appear on the network.

  • April 14, 2019: Buttigieg formally launched his presidential campaign in South Bend, Indiana. If elected, Buttigieg—who is 37 years old now—would be the youngest president ever to take office. The current record-holder is Teddy Roosevelt, who was 42 years old when he first took office.

  • April 11, 2019: Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Steve Grossman, called a “funding powerhouse” by NBC News’ Jonathan Allen, endorsed Buttigieg.

  • April 9, 2019: BuzzFeed published a report on Buttigieg’s South Bend redevelopment program to bulldoze or repair 1,000 vacant and abandoned houses and the effect it had on black and Hispanic communities.

  • April 8, 2019: Victory Fund President Annise Parker said the group would endorse Buttigieg as soon as he announces he is moving from an exploratory committee to an official run. The group spent $2 million on LGBT candidates in 2018.

  • April 7, 2019: Buttigieg appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” before giving a speech at an LGBTQ Victory Fund event. He said his marriage strengthened his faith and questioned evangelical support for Donald Trump.

  • April 4, 2019: While speaking at the National Action Network’s annual conference, Buttigieg called for abolishing the death penalty and said he would support a bill to establish a study on reparations. He campaigned in New Hampshire from April 6-7.

  • April 2, 2019: Buttigieg was interviewed by Roman Catholic priest Edward Beck, where he discussed his personal faith, marriage, and Vice President Mike Pence.

  • April 1, 2019: Buttigieg was interviewed on The Ezra Klein Show, where he discussed his theory for political change and his experiences as mayor.

  • April 1, 2019: Buttigieg announced that his campaign has raised more than $7 million in the first quarter of 2019.

• March 2019 (click to expand)

  March

  • March 28, 2019: Susie Tompkins Buell, a Democratic donor who brought in $6 million for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, scheduled a fundraiser for Buttigieg. Buell had previously expressed support for Kamala Harris and was also scheduled to hold a fundraiser for her.

  • March 28, 2019: Buttigieg campaigned in San Francisco, California, where he said that he was running “not to be a candidate for the LGBTQ community alone, or for any one group,” but for all Americans.

  • March 26, 2019: Buttigieg appeared on the podcast The Breakfast Club, hosted by Charlamagne Tha God. Buttigieg discussed his black agenda and being an openly gay politician.

  • March 23, 2019: Buttigieg also made an appearance in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He spoke at Clinton College.

  • March 20, 2019: Buttigieg was interviewed by Esquire, where he discussed socialism, the Green New Deal, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and reparations.

  • March 13, 2019: Buttigieg tweeted that he was 85 percent of the way to the $65,000 threshold for participation in the first Democratic primary debate.

  • March 12, 2019: Buttigieg delivered his final State of the City address in South Bend, Indiana.

  • March 11, 2019: Buttigieg had his best fundraising day of the cycle, following his televised town hall on CNN. His campaign said he received $600,000 and more than 22,200 donations in 24 hours.

  • March 10, 2019: Buttigieg participated in a town hall televised by CNN, where he discussed the Supreme Court, military experience, and potential impeachment proceedings against Trump.

  • March 7, 2019: Buttigieg was interviewed on CNN by Christiane Amanpour and on former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara’s podcast. Buttigieg said the 2020 election could not solely focus on Trump. Otherwise, he said that "once again a lot of people, especially in the industrial regions where I live, will say that nobody is talking about me.”

  • March 4, 2019: CityLab published a profile of Buttigieg covering his focus on job automation and the future of work.

  • March 3, 2019: Buttigieg said his first legislative initiative would be what he called “democratic reform.” He pointed to reversing Citizens United, abolishing the Electoral College, and creating a "more depoliticized Supreme Court.”

• February 2019 (click to expand)

  February

  • February 27, 2019: Buttigieg made his first presidential campaign visit to California.

  • February 24, 2019: Buttigieg campaigned in Indianapolis, Indiana, as part of his 10-city book tour.

  • February 19: 2019: Buttigieg was interviewed on radio program 1A, where he discussed spending billions to address climate change.

  • February 15, 2019: Buttigieg appeared on PBS NewsHour where he discussed his youth in the race, climate change as a national emergency, and healthcare. Watch the interview here.

  • February 14, 2019: Buttigieg was interviewed by Gabriel Debenedetti for New York Magazine.

  • February 10, 2019: Buttigieg said he supported the Green New Deal resolution proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, which includes a complete transition to renewable energy. Newsweek published a round-up of where all the Democratic candidates stand on the proposal.

  • February 10, 2019: Buttigieg was scheduled to appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Feb. 14. Buttigieg’s civic memoir, Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future, was also released.

  • February 7, 2019: After traveling to Iowa over the weekend, Buttigieg was scheduled to make his first visit to New Hampshire on Feb. 16.

  • February 5, 2019: In an interview with The Washington Blade, discussed the possibility of him becoming the first openly gay presidential nominee of a major party and his position on LGBT issues.

  • February 4, 2019: Buttigieg was scheduled to visit Iowa on February 8th and 9th to attend meet and greets in Ames, Grinnell, and Ankeny.

  • February 3, 2019: Buttigieg said he did not think a single-payer healthcare system necessitated ending private insurance. “If the framework we're using is Medicare, a lot of people who have Medicare also have Medicare supplements, Medicare Advantage, something like that," he said.

• January 2019 (click to expand)

  January

  • January 31, 2019: Buttigieg was interviewed by NPR about his platform on what he calls intergenerational justice. Learn more here.

  • January 31, 2019: In an appearance on The View, Buttigieg questioned whether a congressman or a mayor was better prepared to lead the country. Watch the full interview here.

  • January 28, 2019: Buttigieg, who heads the U.S. Conference of Mayors Automation Task Force, appeared in a NowThis News clip on the future of jobs. “A lot of Americans right now are worried about how we're going to compete with China. I'm more worried about how we're going to compete with robots,” he says in the clip.