Out South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete
Buttigieg on Wednesday announced that he's forming an exploratory
committee to run for president in 2020.
Buttigieg, the seventh announced
Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump, announced his
exploratory committee in a video.
“I belong to a generation that is
stepping forward right now,” Buttigieg, 37, said in his video.
“We're the generation that lived through school shootings, that
served in the wars after 9/11. And we're the generation that stands
to be the first to make less than our parents, unless we do something
different.”
While not mentioning Trump by name,
Buttigieg said that “we cannot look for greatness in the past,” a
possible reference to Trump's “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Annise Parker, president and CEO of the
LGBTQ Victory Fund, called Buttigieg's announcement “a historic and
powerful announcement for the LGBTQ community and the entire nation.”
“Exactly fifty years after the
Stonewall uprising that gave birth to the modern LGBTQ rights
movement, we are finally in a place where an openly LGBTQ
presidential candidate can be a serious contender. For the teenager
in small-town America who is just coming to terms with their sexual
orientation or gender identity, having an openly LGBTQ person running
for the most important political office in the world will demonstrate
there is no limit to what they can achieve – and that is
transformative,” she continued.
Buttigieg came out gay in a 2015 op-ed
and married Chasten Glezman, a teacher, in June.
Announced Democratic presidential
candidates include Senators Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth
Warren of Massachusetts, Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, former
Maryland Representative John Delaney, former Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Julian Castro and former West Virginia state
Senator Richard Ojeda.