Humble Beginnings
Pete Buttigieg, also known as “Mayor Pete” was born Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg in South Bend, Indiana on January 19th, 1982.
Education
Buttigieg received his BA in History and Literature from Harvard University in 2004.
Pete got his BA in Philosophy/Politics and Economics, from Oxford University, 2005-2007. (votesmart.org).
His History with Politics
He was a Research Director (Arizona), John Kerry for President, 2004.
Advisor, Hoosiers for Jill Long Thompson for Governor, 2008.
He was a candidate for the Indiana State Treasury in 2010.
He has been the mayor of his hometown since 2012, and has served as the youngest person to do so, starting at age 29.
Mr. Buttigieg’s first entry into national politics came in early 2017, when he ran for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. (NYT) unfortunately, he withdrew his candidacy prior to the first round of voting. (https://ballotpedia.org/Pete_Buttigieg)
The campaign
Pete has grounded his campaign around the idea of generational change. As the youngest candidate in the presidential field, he says he would “be a bridge to a new era of American politics”(nyt). Mr. Buttigieg was the first candidate to push the idea of increasing the number of seats on the Supreme Court from the original 9. He has also currently collected more money in his campaign’s second quarter than any other candidate. (NYT)
A man of firsts
He is the first openly gay candidate to launch a campaign for the presidency. He married his current husband, Chasten Buttigieg, in 2018.
In addition to this major milestone, he is also aiming to be the first person to go directly from mayorship to to the White House. (NYT)
The issues
Buttigieg is against the death penalty otherwise known as “capital punishment”, and is also in support of reforming the criminal justice system by ending the cash bail system. As far as education is concerned, Buttigieg believes that some student debt should be forgiven, but not all. However, he does believe that students shouldn’t have to take on debt to attain higher education at all. He also believes in the abolishment of the electoral college system, and universal background checks for gun ownership.
Source links: (https://ballotpedia.org/Pete_Buttigieg) , (https://ballotpedia.org/Pete_Buttigieg) , votesmart.org