42-year-old Pete Buttigieg is one of the frontrunners in the race to become Kamala Harris’ running mate though according to experts, if he is chosen, it will be too many ‘firsts’ in the November election. First African-Asian origin woman contesting in the presidential election with a first openly gay minister of the cabinet running as the VP candidate.
10 things to know about Pete Buttigieg
10 things to know about Pete Buttigieg
- Pete Buttigieg is currently the US Secretary of transportation. He is nicknamed as Mayor Pete as he was the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 to 2020.
- From 2009 to 2017, Pete was an intelligence officer in the Navy attaining the rank of lieutenant. He was deployed to the Afghanistan war for seven months in 2014.
- In 2015, Pete came out as gay and then three years later he married Chasten Glezman, a schoolteacher and a writer.
- Pete is a graduate of Harvard College, and the University of Oxford where he was awarded a Rhodes scholarship. He studied philosophy, politics and economics.
- Pete worked on John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign as a policy and research specialist.
- In 2020, Pete ran in the presidential election primaries. He then dropped out of the race and supported Biden.
- After Biden won the election and became the president, Pete was named the secretary of transportation.
- Pete is very open about his personal life. He met his partner on the dating app Hinge in 2015 and dated three years before marrying. Pete became the first mayor of South Bends to get married while in office.
- Chasten Glezman, Pete’s partner, uses Pete’s surname Buttigieg.
- In 2021, they announced that they adopted two newborn fraternal twins.
What Pete Buttigieg said about being Kamala Harris’ running mate
Pete said on Monday he was ready to be Harris’s running mate but they were not in the mode to take up that. We’re just not in that mode right now. You know, we’re on the second day since the president made his decision, and I trust her,” Buttigieg said a day after Biden opted out from the race. “She’s going to do it based on what’s best for the country, best for the party and best for the ticket. I will do everything in my power to make sure that she is the next president,” Pete said.