|
Post by Admin on Feb 9, 2020 1:23:43 GMT
At the same time, Buttigieg's campaign was trying to deal with their three biggest structural weaknesses. His name recognition was still limited in key states beyond Iowa. He was literally at zero in some polls among African American Democrats, the most critical constituency in many of the coming primary states. And the polls suggested he had a dearth of support among younger voters who had flocked to Sanders and Warren. While older voters in Iowa were enthralled with the young former mayor, and often compared him in interviews to President John F. Kennedy, some of his younger antagonists portrayed him as a Wall Street sellout because he had chosen a more moderate platform than Sanders and Warren. A group of young protesters began interrupting Buttigieg at some of his events and their protests became so routine that at one event in December at Grinnell College, Buttigieg invited them to begin their interruption, knowing it was coming. "Do you want to go ahead and do the thing?" he asked them. As the caucuses drew closer, the competition between Biden and Buttigieg also heated up in January with both candidates vying for more moderate voters. Biden's closing argument on television portrayed him as the safe, steady choice who could take on Trump. The former vice president repeatedly argued that this presidential race was no time to gamble on a political novice. Buttigieg pushed back forcefully. "I hear Vice President Biden saying that this is no time to take a risk on someone new," Buttigieg said in Decorah, Iowa. "But history has shown us that the biggest risk we could take with a very important election coming up is to look to the same Washington playbook and recycle the same arguments -- and expect that to work against a president like Donald Trump." "I don't know what Pete's talking about, he's a good guy, and that must be a sign that things are getting a little tight," Biden responded during an impromptu stop at a Dairy Queen in Pella. The former vice president laughed when asked what his biggest contrast was with the former mayor: "You know I've (gotten) more than 8,600 votes in my life." But Buttigieg's message resonated in Iowa, in part because he invoked the legacy of President Barack Obama, another youthful, politically inexperienced candidate, to rebut questions about his age in a top tier dominated by septuagenarian candidates. "I know why hope went out of style for a while in our political vocabulary in a dark and divided moment," Buttigieg said Sunday at his final rally in Des Moines. He called on his crowd to surprise the nation again like they had in 2008 when he too had knocked on doors for Obama. "Are you ready to make history one more time tomorrow evening?" he asked the raucous crowd. "Are you ready for that sunrise when we put the Trump era behind us? ...Iowa, starting tomorrow, I believe you are going to make me the next president of the United States."
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 10, 2020 1:09:00 GMT
The Iowa Democratic Party on Sunday allocated delegates based on the results of last week’s Iowa caucuses, giving former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg the largest delegate count, followed closely by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
The party said it would, based on the results of the race it had collected, award 14 delegates to Buttigieg and 12 delegates to Sanders.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, will receive 8 delegates, while former Vice President Joe Biden will receive 6 and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., will receive 1, the party said.
NBC News is not calling a winner in the first-in-the-nation contest, and the NBC News Decision Desk is not making any independent delegate allocations at this time.
Those delegate allocations are based on the revised results from the caucus that the party collected.
Iowa Democratic caucus results are not actual votes cast. The percentages received by candidates, based on returns of the estimated number of state convention delegates won by each candidate through the caucus process, are known as state delegate equivalents, or SDEs.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 11, 2020 1:15:41 GMT
In 2019, Buttigieg raised more than $76m in donations for his presidential campaign - an astronomical number for a man who was a political unknown at the start of the year and who still struggles to get his name pronounced correctly (it's boot-edge-edge). At a campaign rally in Keene, New Hampshire, on Saturday, actor Michael J Fox riffed on the candidate's unorthodox political background, describing him as a "left-handed, Maltese-American, Episcopalian, millennial, gay war veteran". ]The crowd in a packed college auditorium erupted in laughter. They roared for Buttigieg, as he strode out onto the stage in his now-trademark jacket-less dress shirt and tie, abandoning the lectern to pace the stage with a wireless microphone. "I absolutely love his energy," said Susan Szyldo, a registered nurse from nearby Dublin. "I love his youthfulness. I just think it would be a whole new fresh perspective in Washington, which we need desperately." Husbands Scott Hadland and Jason Bassi from Massachusetts stood near the front of the crowd with their son, Jeremy. "We're really excited to see the first presidential candidate who identifies as gay," Hadland said. "It really means a lot to us to be able to see him in person."
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 15, 2020 18:53:50 GMT
Inside the building, two activists attempted to disrupt the fundraiser after Buttigieg was asked about his husband, Chasten, by a member of the audience.
"I respect your activism," Buttigieg said, "but this is a gathering of supporters of our campaign and I just got a question about my husband and I'm really excited to answer it."
After being shouted down, the protesters were removed from the premises.
Outside the event, a Buttigieg supporter reportedly yelled at protesters calling them "homophobes." One of the protesters responded by saying, "We're all gay!"
"Some have touted former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg's openly gay identity as proof of progress in our politics," read an open letter on the Queers Against Pete website. "However, being gay is not enough to earn the support of LGBTQIA communities. We cannot in good conscience allow Mayor Pete to become the nominee without demanding that he address the needs and concerns of the broader Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual communities."
Some of the group's concerns include Buttigieg's lack of support for canceling student loan debt, his opposition to a fully-realized Medicare for All plan and free universal public college.
Newsweek reached out to Buttigieg's campaign for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Feb 19, 2020 18:16:12 GMT
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has again taken aim at Donald Trump over the issue of “family values” by pointing out that his marriage has never involved him paying “hush money to a porn star”.
Buttigieg, who came out as gay in 2015 and married his husband, Chasten, in 2018, has been the subject of recent homophobic comments by Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host, who told his listeners were “still not ready to elect a gay guy kissing his husband on the debate stage president”.
Limbaugh, who was controversially given the presidential medal of freedom by Trump, said the US president told him to “never apologize” for his comments.
Asked during a CNN town hall in Las Vegas whether he believed Trump would not be opposed to a president coming from the LGBTQ+ community, Buttigieg said: “Well, not if he’s sending out his supporters to talk in this way.
“And, look, I mean, the idea of the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Donald Trump lecturing anybody on family values,” the Democratic presidential nominee said to applause.
|
|