Who is Pete Buttigieg?

Politics & Elections
121

I hadn’t noticed where Pocan was from, and in any case I was thinking more about Baldwin. I believe she also represented Madison when she was in the House (right?), but even so, winning the Senate seat required her to hold her own in the Fox Cities, some of the more conservative sections of the Milwaukee suburbs, and other heavily Republican parts of the state. Either that, or REALLY pile up the votes in not just Madison but also Milwaukee and the southwestern counties…

At any rate, it’s interesting that Baldwin (a lesbian) was able to win and keep a senate seat in “modern times,” while Russ Feingold (a straight man) lost two elections.

But my larger point remains. I agree that Madison is a likely place to support a gay congressional candidate, but it’s about the only truly “liberal bastion” to do so. Boston and Cambridge haven’t elected a gay congressperson. Neither have San Francisco or Berkeley. Brooklyn hasn’t. The Upper West Side of Manhattan hasn’t. Not Seattle, not Ann Arbor. The lesbian representative from Minnesota isn;t from central Minneapolis, but from a suburban district that had most previously elected a right-wing talk show host. The only gay representative from NY represents a mostly exurban district well north of Manhattan. The gay man representing NH actually has the less Democratic of the state’s two districts. And so on–

Because I’m curious, here are the figures for the eight openly LGBTQ reps currently in Congress:

Pocan, WI (Madison)–a D+16 district; as you say, the WI district most likely to elect a gay person, and one that’s probably done so twice.
David Cicciline, RI (Providence)–D+14.
Mark Takano, CA (Riverside)–D+12.

But those are the only current Democratic-leaning districts that elected people known to be LGBTQ. The others:

Katie Hill, CA (Agua Dulce) – even
Sean Patrick Maloney, NY (Carmel/Cold Spring)–R+1
Angie Craig, MN (south suburbs of Mpls)–R+2
Chris Pappas, NH (eastern half of the state, including Manchester)–R+2
Sharice Davids, KS (Kansas City area)–R+4

None of these are exactly noted for being hotbeds of liberalism. And yet…

[Yes, I believe jared Polis got his start in Boulder, and Kate Brown in OR came out of Portland, I think, but as governors they’ve had to appeal to people in other parts of their states as well…]

Anyway. I knew from my own congressman (Maloney) as well as from Synema and Baldwin (at the senatorial level) that politically moderate places could indeed elect gay political leaders, but even so I’m surprised to see how true it is. Again, none of this is meant to say “Oh, Baldwin won two Senate elections, so Wisconsin is in the bag for Mayor Pete should he decide to run”–just that the connection between “bastion of liberalism” and “has elected gay representatives” isn’t actually very strong.

122

Yes, Pocan’s House seat was Baldwin’s. In the 2018 election, Baldwin actually won the Fox Valley, including Brown County (Green Bay, my old hometown), which was never particularly liberal, has gotten increasingly conservative over the past few decades. She did have the advantage of incumbency, as well as running in '18, when some voters were likely making anti-Trump votes (and her opponent, Leah Vukmir, was an unabashed Trumpist), but even so, she won re-election by 11 percentage points, in a state that, as you note, isn’t particularly “blue” overall.

123

Ulf, those are definitely interesting–and surprising–numbers. (I’ll take your word for it that they are accurate.)

124

Clay Aiken ran for Congress in my district which at the time was pretty red and he got 40% which I assume means he got all the Dem votes or maybe he lost a few and picked up a few GOP votes.

125

I share the concern that PB’s being a married gay dude with an odd name is going to hurt him with a substantial chunk of the electorate. I also wonder, more and more, if he has the gumption to stand up to Trump & Co. once they start seriously dumping on him, as they will if he comes anywhere close to the Dem nomination. Just not sure how he’ll fare once the GOP attack machine cranks up.

126

I don’t think the job of president is to dream up and come in with a huge list of fully fleshed out detailed policy proposals - that’s a job much bigger than one person. At this stage it’s unfair to compare smaller, less funded candidates against someone like Senator Warren who has the advantage of multiple staffers (who’s job is to dream up these proposals), lots of money to hire outside consultants, and prior experience in Congress to piggyback off of.

The President’s role is to be informed about the issues, knowledgeable, willing to defer to experts (and to know how to select those experts), willing to be flexible when facts on the ground suggest a change of direction, be able to sell both the voters and congress on whatever policy changes are the best course of action, and ultimately make the tough decisions that are placed before the unitary executive.

127

What I’m really hoping for from him, this cycle at least, is that he acts as a lightning rod for all of the Republican attacks, to leave the eventual actual candidate more protected.

128

And if a married gay dude with an odd name is going to make a run, it should be someone with political experience beyond mayor of such a small city (that people outside Indiana have only heard of because a famous university is there). For that matter, even if his name were Peter Bradley, and he was in a straight marriage and looked like Ashton Kutcher instead of Topher Grace, it would still be an absurdity to run for president from that position. If he’s really running for Cabinet, that’s cool, I guess–except that he might distort the field and change who gets nominated.

129

I finally, after many months of seeing his name and watching interest in him grow, heard his speaking voice in an interview on “The Breakfast Club” on Youtube. I was NOT prepared for that voice at all. I was not REMOTELY expecting it to sound like that - not to judge someone on his appearance too much but I assumed it would be higher. No, not at all because he is gay, but because he’s so youthful looking. But his voice sounds more like a professional voice-over actor…or Don Draper. I’m sold on the guy by his speaking voice alone. He speaks with incredible confidence, authority, and is very articulate. I’m impressed, honestly. Now in spite of his name, and his being gay, I am CONVINCED he could be very competitive in the election.

Just my 2 cents.

130

Just heard him say “we need to treat teachers more like soldiers. We need to pay them more like doctors.” While the latter might be a stretch, and the risk to life and limb not the same as the former, I think it’s an admirable thing to say, and that message - that teachers need to be better compensated and that the education they provide is a crucial part of economic progress, and it’s a great thing to hear. Again, very impressed. Not so much by the message, although I agree with it, than by the way he presented it. And with SUCH authority and confidence in his voice.

131

23% is an interesting figure. Presuming that 35% of the country still backs the current POTUS 100% regardless of whatever or whomever he hurts, I sincerely wonder whether the difference between those two numbers are okay with homosexuality.

I’d love to see the ethnic, religious background and social status breakdown of both your 23% figure and the much thrown around 35% figure.
It’s safe to say he won’t get 99.9% of the Evangelical vote, but then again most of those people are delusional and think Trump is the third coming of Christ, assuming he was real.
If Pete B. makes it to the debates, I’m curious what kind of dog whistling we’ll see from the GOP. Compared to being a woman or black/minority, or even both, there’s very little to point towards him being gay as a con without coming off as an asshole. The only real baggage I can think of is him being gay, which I pointed out earlier in my first post in this thread. However, like I said and you said, a very small portion, albeit very vocal, opposes homosexuality. Then again, they’re fine with Lindsey Graham.

132

Nah, you’re not being homophobic. He does look young, but it’s down to genetics. Similar to you, I didn’t expect the voice that came out of Jared Kushner, either. Jared’s voice isn’t as deep as Pete’s, but his voice doesn’t match his body/face either. Actually, what’s more surprising is how old Kushner is. I had thought he was in his early 30s.

The old rules need not apply after 2016. One could argue even Obama wouldn’t have made it. The dynamic of politics is changing.

133

The Post article with the 23% has a link to the supporting Gallup poll, but there aren’t any demographic breakdowns in that data.

However, the Pew study, in which 31% said that homosexuality “should be discouraged” does, at least, have breakdowns by religion: faiths / denominations in which the “discouraged” number is 50% or higher include evangelical Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons. A bit lower are Muslims (at 47%), and “historically black Protestant” denominations (at 40%).

Similarly, among those who are absolutely certain in the existence of God, who attend church regularly, and who pray regularly, they, too, are more likely to feel that homosexuality should be discouraged. Unfortunately, the web site doens’t have any breakdowns by age, region, income, etc.

134

People in this thread are really treating black voters as invisible. White conservatives are not the only ones who are less accepting of homosexuality. African Americans are about twice as likely as other Democrats to disapprove.

ETA: Sorry, kenobi’s data does point to that a bit, and also reminds me there are Arab-Americans to consider, who are disproportionately important in Michigan, obviously one of the key spaces on the electoral map chessboard.

135

Mayor Pete received all of 8,500 votes in his last seriously contested election in 2015. Compare that to Cory Booker’s 1 million in 2014, Kamala Harris’s 7.5 million in 2016, or Beto O’Rourke’s 4 million in 2018.

This article says he is weak with black voters: Buttigieg loses some precincts on South Bend's west side

I tried to find some politicians who had received as few votes as Pete for an apples-to-apples comparison, but the closest I could come up with is Toni Carter. Here in Minnesota, she won the District 4 race to get a seat on the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, with 25,500 votes, “only” three times as many as Pete. :dubious:

I mean, what are we doing here? 1-2-3 in Iowa is an elderly man who was born before WWII, an elderly man born during WWII, and then for a curveball, a guy who didn’t turn eighteen until after Y2K and looks like he was too young to vote for Obama? None of whom excite black voters? Hello? :smack:

136

I like Pete a lot. You can tell he’s really smart. He’s served in the military in addition to being Mayor.

I’m very happy to see him rising in the polls.

137

Does the third part of your post correlate to the Pew data? I’m not entirely surprised by the faith breakdown. Also not surprised at Islam being more accepting by a small margin compared to non-Muslims. That said, the Mormon part surprises me, not because of the advanced the Mormon Church has made to become more inclusive (though they have tons of work to do) is that, and anecdotally speaking, I’ve never met a Mormon who wasn’t gay.

138

Yes, that’s from the Pew data. Their site breaks out the answers to the question about “should homosexuality be accepted or discouraged” by several other measures related to faith and religion.

The LDS Church is still pretty anti-homosexual, as far as I can tell. Church policy still prohibits any same-sex sexual behavior, the church has actively fought against legalization of same-sex marriage in recent years, and Mormons who enter into a SSM are classified as apostates.

OTOH, it also looks like the church at least no longer holds that homosexuality is a “curable condition,” and they apparently actually supported a law in Salt Lake City to ban discrimination against LGBT people in employment and housing.

In short, it sounds like the LDS position currently is, “being gay is all right, but gay sex is still really bad.”

Source: Homosexuality and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Wikipedia

139

You should be surprised, because it’s not actually the case. Of the 12 religions listed, only three were slightly more intolerant of homosexuality than Muslims, while the others were significantly less intolerant. For example, only about one-fourth of Catholics and mainline Protestants said homosexuality should be discouraged, compared to half of Muslims.

140

I’m happy that he is getting some attention; I’ve only started paying attention to him myself this week. One thing that intrigues me is that he is not only a religious man (Episcopalian), he has stated frequently that his politics are a direct result of his faith. That’s really hits home for me because becoming Episcopalian was one of the first steps in my evolution from Republican to Democrat. I would LOVE to see us put to rest the idea that the GOP is the “Christian” party. It’s not, by any means. It’s the evangelical party, maybe, and not for the benefit of either brand.

I really want to see a Democrat run who speaks freely and frequently about his or her own faith while respecting and honoring people of all (or no) faiths - which is what I keep seeing from Pete. I really hope he goes far in the race, whether or not he ultimately wins this time.

(A joke I’ve heard a couple of times already: “He speaks seven languages! That’s six and a half more than the current President!”)