Peter Buttigieg, the former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced last night he was leaving the Democratic race for President.
Mayor Peter was the first openly LGBTQ candidate for President. His husband Chasten was his frequent companion on the campaign tour. He was a veteran of the war in Iraqi and a Rhodes Scholar (like Senator Corey Booker, another Democratic candidate who earlier left the Presidential race.)
At 38, he would have been the youngest person ever elected to the presidency.
Among his achievements in his historic race was a first place finish in the Iowa Caucuses.
When his sexuality came up as an issue on the debate stage recently in a CNN town hall, Mayor Pete responded:
"The idea of the likes of Rush Limbaugh or Donald Trump lecturing anybody on family values, I mean, sorry, but one thing about my marriage is it's never involved me having to send hush money to a porn star after cheating on my spouse," he said. "They want to debate family values, let's debate family values. I'm ready."
Here were his words in South Bend last night, to end his historic candidacy...for now.
"Our goal has always been to help unify Americans to help defeat Donald Trump and to win the era for our values. And so we must recognize that at this point in the race the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals is to step aside and help bring our party and our country together," he said.
"I will do everything in my power to make sure we have a new Democratic president come January, he said.
Pass this on. Honor his race!
#DefeatTrump2020 #MayorPete2020
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March 2, 2020