AMERICAN DEMOCRATIC PRIMER

PETE BUTTIGIEG A CREDIBLE OUTSIDER

According to the partial results of the Iowa caucus, kick-off of the Democratic primaries, the mayor of South Bend would be shoulder to shoulder with Bernie Sanders.

Would Pete Buttigieg's fate go through 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC ?

Yet he likes to repeat and insist that it has absolutely nothing to do with the Washington establishment. Quite the contrary.

At 38, Pete Buttigieg, a multilingual technocrat, veteran, gay and married, wants to highlight as much as he can his experience as mayor of South Bend, a small town in the Republican state of Indiana , whose US Vice President Mike Pence was Governor before joining the Trump administration.

It is thanks to this experience in this state of Midwest, he assures, that he developed a connection with the Americans much more authentic than that of the elites of the federal capital.

Youth a campaign argument

Positioned in the center, he launched himself into the battle last year to be the one who will be Donald Trump's great rival in the presidential election in November. To do this, he must face democratic candidates who are better known to the general public, but also twice as old. "Pete", as he is easily called because of his unpronounceable name, managed to overcome his young age, he celebrated his 38th birthday on January 19.

Never has such a young American taken part in the race for the White House: when he formalized his candidacy, in April 2019, he was only two years older than the minimum age required to run for the presidential.

The Democrat has, in fact, much less experience in politics than the "seniors in the primaries." He never exercised a national mandate but ruled the fourth largest city of Indiana (100,000 inhabitants), South Bend, between 2015 and 2019.

Pete Buttigieg, however, turned this inexperience into an argument for his campaign. He recalls that "each time [his] party has entered the White House for the past fifty years, this has been done thanks to a candidate who is new to national politics, focused on the future, not shaped by the way of life of Washington and paving the way for a new generation. "

"This is how we win," he insists.

A credible outsider against his Democratic rivals

An excellent speaker, he highlighted his experience as a military enlisted worker, who spent seven months in Afghanistan. He has managed to appear as a credible outsider against his Democratic rivals, including former Vice President Joe Biden, who has long pranced in the polls, and Senator Bernie Sanders, great hope of the left wing of the party . These two veterans of politics have failed to contain Pete Buttigieg, who has repeatedly told voters that his status as a newcomer was not unique in the history of presidential elections. In some ways, Pete Buttigieg then recalls Bill Clinton. Barely older than him when he entered the competition, Clinton was the governor of Arkansa and Buttigieg is mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

Supporter of unity

"Mayor Pete" as he is often called has just revealed that there is a new offer that is available to voters. He dusted off the campaign which remained stuck on the fight of the great elders that are Sanders, Biden and Warren, without mentioning Bloomberg, who is also agitated by spending a fortune.

For many Americans, Pete Buttigieg was a complete stranger until he called Mike Pence the "presidential cheerleader" of the Trump presidency, he said. As his campaign grew, he presented himself as a supporter of unity after the Trump-era divisions.

He has thus put forward certain progressive positions, but thinks that his more moderate views on health coverage and taxes could convince centrist voters, in particular the independents and Republicans who voted for Donald Trump, but wishing an option to get out of this presidency marked by division. He is also pro-union and proposes to increase the number of judges on the Supreme Court.

The sexual orientation of Pete Buttigieg, who appeared at the start of the competition alongside her husband Chasten, seems however to have relatively little impact on the choice of voters. In recent months, the young Harvard graduate has preferred to focus on his Christian faith rather than his marriage to a man. Chasten Glezman, 30, would become the first “first gentleman” if her husband was elected president. As mayor, Pete Buttigieg, who married in church in the summer of 2018, regularly reacted to remarks by religious curator Mike Pence, former governor of Indiana.

Also Major Pete knew how to give a breath to the democratic campaign by proposing another way. His campaign launch was clear on this point: it was not so much for him to chase Donald Trump as to give a new perspective to his generation and to the younger ones "who will be those who, for the first time, will succeed worse than their parents if nothing changes, "he said then.

“Pete Buttigieg therefore becomes a name that rivals each of his rivals, and his youth snaps in this campaign as a challenge he opposes to their experience: the American Dream is reinvented. Each voter can easily identify with this sling from a still very young man who claims that everything is possible for anyone who wants to try his luck.

An important symbolic victory

Should we get carried away and think that Iowa will create the dynamic that will lead him to victory? In a survey published by Gallup: to the question "who is best placed to beat Donald Trump?" ", They are 44% in the Democratic Party to answer" Joe Biden ", before ranking Sanders (19%), Bloomberg (10%), Warren (9%) and are only 3% to quote Buttigieg.

Translating his victory in Iowa into a broader electoral success will be a monumental task. Despite its impressive ability to raise funds, national polls only place it in fifth position. The fault of a notoriety deficit compared to more established candidates. He also suffers from very weak support among black voters, a key electorate for the Democrats ...

Pete Buttigieg starts his campaign with an important symbolic victory. But this small rural state represents only 41 delegates out of the 1,990 necessary to be invested by the Democratic Party, during the national convention in July. He will therefore have to garner other victories, in larger states, if he wants to be nominated presidential candidate.