TIME have featured Pete Buttigieg, US Presidential Candidate for 2020 and his husband, Chasten, on the May 13 cover of the magazine with the headline “First Family”.
The sub-headline of the cover reads “The unlikely, untested and unprecedented campaign of Mayor Pete Buttigieg”. The pair could become the first same-sex couple in The White House if Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is elected next year.
The article profiles the 37 year-old’s run for president, describing Buttigieg as “the first openly gay person to make a serious bid for the presidency”.
TIME describes Buttigieg as Donald Trump’s “polar opposite: younger, dorkier, shorter, calmer and married to a man”.
“Buttigieg likes to say he has more government experience than Trump, and more military experience than any President in 25 years. And Trump’s victory in 2016 proved that many Americans were willing to elect a President without a traditional Washington résumé.”
“But some voters long for stability after three years of chaos, and it’s not clear whether the Trump presidency has made it easier or harder for outsiders,” the article continues.
Pete Buttigieg is a devout Episcopalian and has been critical of anti-LGBT+ Christians as well as Vice President Mike Pence. He has been frequently quoted as saying “God doesn’t have a political party”.
Right-wing politicians and religious figures have voiced concern about Buttigieg’s campaign and Jacob Wohl was recently accused of trying to fabricate sexual-assault allegations against Buttigieg to decrease support for him.
TIME's new cover: Mayor Pete Buttigieg's unlikely, untested, unprecedented presidential campaign https://t.co/kMRow7D4sM pic.twitter.com/xmrZaAW7y4
— TIME (@TIME) May 2, 2019
Currently, Buttigieg is polling at third place among Democratic presidential candidates, behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Buttigieg’s platform is “Freedom, Security and Democracy,” however, he has not actually detailed any policy proposals on his website since announcing his intention to run in January.
As a white man, Buttigieg may appeal to more traditional voters. However, democratic operative Jess Morales Rocketto has been critical of Buttigieg’s ‘healer’ attitude. “As a woman of colour, it’s very difficult for me to hear ‘We can unite across our differences,” she said. “On one side you have people who want to live in a white-supremacist country, and on the other side you have people dying at the hands of white supremacists.”
It has been four years since the US legalised same-sex marriage. At the moment, a poll shows that 70% say they would vote for a gay candidate, but the level of support for Buttigieg remains somewhat unclear while his policies are yet to be released.
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