March 2, 2020 53
But then, here is Buttigieg— the gay mil-
lennial competing with veteran senators
and a former Vice President. “I certainly
sense how improbable this all is,” Butti-
gieg tells People. “I think, in an odd way,
that’s part of why we’re succeeding.”
The only child of University of Notre
Dame English professors, Mayor Pete,
as he’s now known to those unsure of
pronouncing BOOT-edge-edge, rocket-
ed from Harvard to Oxford (on a Rhodes
scholarship) to the Navy Reserves. At 29,
he was elected South Bend mayor with
74 percent of the vote and two years later
deployed to Afghanistan—an experience
that now shapes his thoughts on war. “I
wasn’t kicking down doors, but just the
frequency of rocket attacks—the way I
feel to this day when I hear that sound,”
he says. “The effects follow you. We’ve
got to be more aware of those costs.”
He came out as gay in a June 2015
newspaper op-ed and, five months
later, was reelected mayor by an 80
percent majority. By 2016 he was on
then- President Barack Obama’s list of
next-gen Democratic leaders to watch.
It’s now been a year since the start
of Buttigieg ’s improbable campaign—
“exhilarating,” he calls it, and also “ex-
hausting.” Days are fueled by coffee and
beef jerky; at night he falls asleep in his
hotel room to the cartoons Family Guy
or Rick and Morty. He misses his two
dogs (they FaceTime) and being able
to “spend the greater portion of my day
in sweatpants.” But the rewards are big,
if quiet. Sometimes someone will stop
him in a crowd and not say a thing. “Of-
ten it’s someone who I think is LGBT
and just could not have pictured this
campaign being possible,” Buttigieg
says. For Chasten, the middle school
teacher who took the name Buttigieg
when they wed in 2018, the race is both
personal and profound. The morning
after New Hampshire voted, just before
Buttigieg was pulled away to Nevada and
South Carolina, the next states to vote,
Chasten hugged him and said, “Stop and
pinch yourself.” •
Growing Up
in South Bend
Buttigieg (age 4,
at the piano) was a
quick study at life.
“Whatever situation
he was in, new school,
or new group, he
would simply stand
there and watch,” his
mom has said.
‘An Underdog
Mentality’
“No matter how I’m
doing in the polls, I have
to push and earn every
vote,” says Buttigieg
(campaigning in New
Hampshire in February).
Service
Buttigieg (welcomed
home in 2014 by his
dad, Joseph, who
died last year of
cancer, and his mom,
Anne) was in office
when he deployed to
Afghanistan for seven
months as a naval
intelligence officer.
The Man
by His Side
Chasten (with
Buttigieg at their
June 2018 wedding)
paused his teaching
job last year to
campaign full-time,
becoming a political
star himself. “People
just naturally take
to him because he’s
a magnetic and
wonderful person,”
Buttigieg says.
HIS
AMAZING
JOURNEY
CLOCKW
ISE FROM LEFT: GABRIELA BHASKAR/GETTY IMAGES; COURTESY PETE FOR
AMERICA; PETER RINGENBERG/PETE FOR AMERICA(2)
