Pete Buttigieg Launches Exploratory Committee For Presidential Run

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigiegannounced an exploratory committee for a Presidential run in a video posted online Wednesday morning.

Buttigieg (pronounced: Bhudda-Judge) has been making moves toward a presidential run for a while now. He made a failed run for DNC chair in 2017, declared last month he wouldn’t run for a third term as mayor and has written a campaign book set to come out February 12.

In the video paid for by his new ‘Pete for America Exploratory Committee’ Buttigieg says America needs a fresh start. “The reality is there’s no going back and there’s no such thing as again in the real world. We can’t look for greatness in the past.”

Buttigieg,37, is a South Bend native, a industrial city of 100,000 near the stateline in Northern Indiana. He has been mayor since 2012.

A New Generation of Leadership from Pete for America on Vimeo.
 

No candidate has jumped straight from mayor to president and few outside of South Bend, or political circles know who he is, but Buttigieg was named by former President Barack Obama as a person to watch in the Democratic Party.

He is a Rhodes Scholar and a Navy veteran who served a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He lives in South Bend with his Husband, Chasten, and their two dogs.