Highlights: Reflecting on Running With Pete Buttigieg
ANNA MATHEWS: Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg spoke about his experience on the 2020 Democratic nomination campaign trail in a conversation with GU Politics’ Executive Director Mo Elleithee on March 31.
The virtual conversation is the latest of the GU Politics Reflections on Running series. Buttigieg had a rather unique campaign, as he went from a widely unknown mayor of a Midwestern town to a serious contender for the nomination.
The Early Days of the Campaign
Elleithee commented on the campaign’s humble beginnings. “There might be as many people on this Zoom chat right now as there were people around the country who knew who you were outside of South Bend when you started.”
When asked about the early days of his campaign, Buttigieg recalled grabbing chances to speak on news outlets whenever he was given the option, whether it was on CNN or on a college campus radio show. “We tried to cover as much ground as we could, knowing that we weren’t going to come into a national conversation and immediately overtake US Senators or a former Vice President.”
He credited speaking to smaller crowds, consisting of a few dozen audience members or less, with building early momentum for his campaign. He stressed the importance of smaller venues, saying, “You have to go backyard by backyard, diner by diner.”
Buttigieg said that these conversations were valuable experiences, adding that, “if what you have to say isn’t compelling, you find out pretty quick.” He added that these conversations were an asset of the current nomination process. Buttigieg said that this basic level of human encounter allowed for “conversations that are sometimes not mediated at all.”
Buttigieg suggested that the importance of these small conversations shows a strength of the current nomination process. “It is not simply handed to the person with the most name recognition.” However, he acknowledged frustrations with the current nomination. “A lot of people believe that it is flawed, that it is broken and fragile,” specifically citing campaign finance as an issue,” he said.
On Deciding to Run
Elleithee also asked Buttigieg what led him to run. Buttigieg said he felt that certain qualities were not present in the other candidates. “We needed to have a different perspective. We needed to have a different generation stepping up,” he commented.
Buttigieg also shared more personal details of his decision to run and described a conversation with his husband, Chasten Buttigieg. His husband told him, “I’ll support this, as long as there are two promises we keep to ourselves. And one is that as we do this together we are always gonna be true to the values that we believe in. And secondly that we find some way to have joy in this process.”
When asked what he surprised him most about the country, Buttigieg noted the wide difference between what concerned voters and what concerned political commentators the most. “Reporters would always want me to weigh in on whatever the latest drama or latest Tweet from President Trump was. Voters almost never did.”
Politics and the Pandemic
In the second half of the conversation, the topics veered towards more current issues. The COVID-19 outbreak was a recurring topic. When asked how he thinks COVID-19 will shape future U.S. policy, Buttigieg responded that the crisis will reshape the nation’s priorities, adding that COVID-19 is a “dress rehearsal for climate change.”
The conversation ended on a more hopeful note when Buttigieg was asked how students can remain active and impactful amid widespread shelter in place orders and social distancing guidelines. “As long as you have a mind and a phone, you can talk to anybody. That matters more than you might guess.”
Buttigieg ended the conversation with a call to action, noting that dealing with the COVID-19 crisis is “going to require levels of imagination that I don’t think we’ve summoned in my lifetime.”
Anna Matthews is a sophomore in the College studying Government and Philosophy.