Pete Buttigieg forms exploratory committee to run for president
South Bend,
Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the young, gay, millennial Navy veteran, who ran unsuccessfully in 2017 to lead the Democratic National Committee — announced early Wednesday morning that he is forming an exploratory committee to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
Buttigieg made the announcement on Twitter:
He also emailed supporters and will hold a news conference later in the day in Washington, D.C.
A Democrat elected in one of the most conservative states in the U.S., Buttigieg served as a naval intelligence officer in Afghanistan. And at 37 years old (he just had a birthday), he's the youngest candidate -- and the first millennial -- in a rapidly growing field that could see a few White House aspirants who are twice his age.
In 2011, at 29, Buttigieg was elected to his first term as mayor, becoming the youngest mayor of a U.S. city with a population of over 100,000. During his tenure, he worked to redevelop the city, restoring and rebuilding abandoned homes and funding investment in South Bend's parks and trails.
Buttigieg was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal for his counterterrorism work after he took a leave of absence from his mayoral duties in 2014 to serve in Afghanistan on a seven-month deployment with the Navy.
In 2016, he ran for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, losing the race to former Labor Secretary Tom Perez.