2020-03-02_People

52 March 2, 2020

Pete Buttigieg celebrated his 38th

birthday, on Jan. 19, with the rarest of

luxuries for a presidential candidate:

a night off and a quiet steak dinner at

home, just, in his words, “being with

the dogs by the fireplace, chilling out.”

The next morning, as he headed back

to the campaign trail, his husband,

Chasten, kissed him goodbye. “Just

think,” Chasten said from their South

Bend, Ind., house, “the next time you

and I step foot in this home, you’ll have

won Iowa or New Hampshire—or

we’ll be reconsidering where things

are going.”

Wherever things are going next, it

won’t be back to a quiet life. Buttigieg—

unknown a year ago to almost every-

one outside South Bend, where he was

mayor until Jan. 1—emerged from the

Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses as the first openly

gay candidate ever to win a presidential

nominating contest. The following week

he missed first place in New Hampshire

( behind Sen. Bernie Sanders) by a few

thousand votes. In the race for delegates

who will decide the Democratic presi-

dential nominee, those finishes togeth-

er make Buttigieg, at least for now, the

front- runner. It can all seem unimag-

inable in a country that two decades ago

widely criminalized homosexuality and

until 2015 widely banned gay marriage.

THE MAYOR MAKING

HISTORY

Pete

Buttigieg

THE FIRST OPENLY GAY CANDIDATE TO

WIN A PRESIDENTIAL CAUCUS STEPS INTO

THE SPOTLIGHT: ‘THE PRESIDENCY NOW

CALLS FOR UNITY AND SOMEBODY READY

TO TURN THE PAGE’ By ADAM CARLSON