U.S. Politics
Who is Pete Buttigieg?
Background
Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg (D), 41, is an American politician and former naval officer who is currently serving as the 19th United States Secretary of Transportation.
Buttigieg was the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from 2012 to 2020, which earned him the nickname “Mayor Pete.”
From 2009 to 2017, Buttigieg was an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant. He was deployed to the War in Afghanistan for seven months in 2014.
Buttigieg worked on the political campaigns of Democrats Jill Long Thompson, Joe Donnelly, and John Kerry, and ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for Indiana state treasurer in 2010 before being elected as mayor of South Bend in 2011.
Buttigieg came out as gay while serving as South Bend’s mayor in 2015. He is also the first openly gay person to be confirmed to any Senate-confirmed department and to hold a Cabinet-level position.
In June 2018, he declined to seek a third term as mayor. He ran as a candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race. He was the first openly gay Democrat to launch a major party presidential campaign.
