Chasten and Pete Buttigieg
Chasten and Pete Buttigieg
"It's time for a new American leadership"
Chasten Buttigieg goes from opening act to fundraising star
Pete Buttigieg’s husband is now headlining fundraisers solo, helping power the mayor’s 2020 campaign as he focuses on Iowa and New Hampshire.
By ELENA SCHNEIDER 09/22/2019
Chasten Buttigieg has gone viral on social media and supported his husband on the presidential campaign trail. Now, he’s playing a new role for Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 bid: rainmaker.
Chasten is slated to be the sole headline draw for several Pete for America fundraisers over the next month, starting with an event in Chicago this week. In October, Chasten will swing through New York City for another fundraiser, followed by a trip overseas to raise money from Americans living in London on Oct. 22, according to event invitations obtained by POLITICO.
Chasten has also struck out on his own for other events, like a ribbon-cutting for a dozen new field offices in New Hampshire earlier this month, while Pete did the same for 20 offices in Iowa. The split-screen events show Chasten — a 30-year-old teacher who was nearly anonymous at the beginning of 2019 — cutting a campaign profile more akin to well-known former second lady Jill Biden than most 2020 spouses. And that prominence could be a force multiplier for the Buttigieg campaign through the fall, keeping the fundraising spigot open while Pete stumps in all-important Iowa and New Hampshire.
(Full story at Politico.com)
Pete Buttigieg talks about how his lifelong political ambitions were complicated by the secret he kept for decades.
For years, Mr. Buttigieg said, he “packed up” his feelings about his sexuality, ignoring crushes that began at the age of 12. He tried dating women and, when that didn’t work, he tried to focus solely on his career.
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., spoke about why the presidency has been on his mind since high school and how growing up gay complicated his careful career planning.
Four key moments from our interview with the mayor
The 1988 Democratic National Convention
Pete Buttigieg was 6 during the leap-year election that delivered George Bush to the White House. That year’s party conventions, playing through a quiet Indiana home, introduced Mr. Buttigieg to the idea of politics.
“Politics was always in the air in our house, just because my parents were very politically passionate,” he said. “They really cared about what was happening.”
As the only child of two academics, Mr. Buttigieg said he remembered his parents explaining what a convention was and insisting that the family watch both the Democratic and the Republican broadcasts.
As they listened to Jesse Jackson address the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Buttigieg said, “everything in the house would kind of stop, and it was time to watch what was playing out.”
Raising his hand
In our interview, Mr. Buttigieg connected his early political ambition to the last time impeachment dominated national politics, revealing that the presidency has been, even if only hypothetically, on his mind since high school.
Read more at New York Times.
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