How About Pete?

Pete Buttigieg is a gay Harvard alum, an Oxford grad, and fluent in Gramsci, Joyce, and Norwegian. And he’s the Democrats’ folksiest heartland hope. Really!

- Olivia Nuzzi

By the time Pete Buttigieg arrived at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, on the night of April 5, the space was at capacity and the crowd had swelled to fill half the parking lot. It was drizzling and flurrying, but word quickly spread that Buttigieg would speak before heading inside, so those denied admission stayed put, preparing to lift up their phones to document this moment in the twilight, when the suddenly famous mayor of a small city in a state they’d probably only ever visit by accident or under duress would make the case for his campaign to be the savior who delivers America from President Donald Trump.

The mayor of South Bend, Indiana (pop. 102,245), for the past eight years and a candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary (pop. 18 and expanding) since January, Buttigieg is in the middle of what the mainstream media likes to call “a moment,” that dreamy season between obscurity and overexposure when all anyone asks is “Who is Pete Buttigieg?” or “How do you pronounce Buttigieg?” or “Should I care about Pete Buttigieg?” Which is mostly a way of asking, “Is this for real?”