Pete’s Political Play

After Obama won the White House in 2012, few were surprised at the demographics that voted for him. Obama won traditional Democratic voting groups such as African-Americans and women and also received heavy support from millennials. In the run-up to the 2020 Democratic primary election, “every one of the 23 candidates running is looking at that Obama model and looking very closely at how to replicate it for their own purposes,” Patti Solis Doyle, senior adviser to Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, told the HPR. 

Pete Buttigieg is doing just that, and doing it well. In an era when voters under the age of 53 are outvoting Baby Boomers, Buttigieg’s campaign is focusing on a message that resonates with younger voters: optimistic, values-driven, bipartisan changemaking. In 2020, “it won’t be enough for Democratic candidates to simply talk about issues important to young voters,” Heather Hargreaves, the executive director of NextGen America, told PBS. Younger voters are looking beyond a candidate’s policy platform, searching for empathy and awareness. Buttigieg recognizes this, and has oriented his campaign to be attractive to millennials and younger generations. Nonetheless, if his campaign also seeks to attract other traditional Democratic voting groups — namely, African-Americans — there is still much work to be done.

Personality First

Near the outset, Buttigieg’s campaign was criticized for the lack of policy proposals mentioned on his website and in speeches. Instead, he spent his time letting voters acquaint themselves with his personality and values. Now more than ever, a politician’s personality is essential. With so much focus on the sitting president’s controversial personality, voters and millennials are left wanting “a complete opposite of Donald Trump,” said Solis Doyle. In 2016, part of the reason why Clinton lost to Trump was her personality. Solis Doyle explained, “People didn’t trust [Clinton]. And while they didn’t like Trump either, he had a way of engaging with people.” 

As a relatively unknown politician before beginning his campaign, Buttigieg was smart to focus on attracting voters with his personality first. He has since basked in the media spotlight, going beyond traditional interviews by appearing on talk shows such as Late Night with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. “[Voters] are going to invest a long time in what [candidates’] policies are …[but] they need to like you first,” Solis Doyle said. On average, younger generations are less interested in politics than older ones, Pew Research Center found in a 2015 study. It is crucial that younger voters have a strong reason to continue supporting a candidate, and Buttigieg made it his personality. All this support for Buttigieg’s campaign led him to be the top fundraiser in the second quarter, bringing in $24.9 million. In an interview with the HPR, Wisconsin Buttigieg supporter Jane Abott said, “I’m really impressed with the way he’s laid out his personal life, making it easy to get to know him as a person. His policies will fall into place.” 

An Emphasis On Values

Throughout his campaign, Buttigieg has emphasized his values in an effort to continue connecting with younger voters. In “A Letter From Flyover Country,” Buttigieg wrote, “I am a Democrat because I believe in protecting freedom, fairness, families and the future.” In a speech in June, Buttigieg expanded: “We know that you’re not free if you don’t have health care. And you’re afraid to start a small business. And we know that you’re not free when your reproductive health is being dictated by male politicians.” Buttigieg wrote in the Letter that in the wake of the 2016 election, the Democratic Party’s priority should be “begin[ning] with the values that make us Democrats in the first place. If we don’t talk about values, many Americans will tune us out. Again.” 

Buttigieg wants to protect the values of future generations, a strong anchor point for millennials — considered the most progressive generation. Fifty-one percent of millennials support gay rights, the highest proportion of any generation, and more than four in 10 are people of color, making millenials the most diverse generation in history, says a 2018 Brookings report. A commitment to protecting values is crucial to winning younger voters’ trust. As Hargreaves stated, “Politicians need to remember young people have a bullshit meter like no one else.” To win millennial voters’ trust on issues, “candidates have to prove they care and are not simply pandering.”Buttigieg’s unique background helps show voters his genuiness. 

Looking Beyond Party Lines

While campaigning, Buttigieg often referred to his time as mayor of South Bend, Indiana to highlight that his pragmatic approach to politics supersedes party lines. In “A Letter From Flyover Country,” he wrotewrites, “Being the mayor of your hometown is the best job in America, partly because it’s relatively nonpartisan — we focus on results, not ideology.” South Bend went from being one of America’s top-10 dying communities to seeing its fastest pace of population and investment growth in recent history. Results transcend partisanship. Buttigieg earned voters trust, and won his second term with more than 80 percent of the vote — even though South Bend was split almost evenly between Trump and Clinton. 

Millennials are also looking for results. According to a survey by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion, 62 percent of all millennials disapprove of Trump’s job performance. “Problem solving and pragmatism are at odds with the way national politics work right now,” Vox journalist Julia Azari told the HPR. Buttigieg recognizes that governments need to look beyond just the people who voted for them. “We’re actually living in a moment that’s kind of a season for local leadership. It’s a season for local leadership because that’s where things get done,” Buttigieg writes. 

Buttigieg has carried his belief in bipartisanship from governing into campaigning, continuing to earn voters’ trust across party lines. After Buttigieg went on Fox News, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tweeted, “Fox News is a hate-for-profit racket that gives a megaphone to racists and conspiracists” and gave a “hard pass” to ever appearing. Buttigieg took a different stance. In his Fox News town hall, he said: “Even though some of these hosts are not always there in good faith, I think a lot of people tune into this network in good faith. Whether it’s going on Fox or going into places where Democrats haven’t been seen much, we have to find people where they are.” His willingness to engage with people from both political parties is a strong asset for attracting millennials, the least politically affiliated generation. Pew Research Center found that in 2014, 50 percent of millennials identified as independent. A 2017 NBC poll also found that 71 percent of millennials were dissatisfied with the way the two-party political system represents people and functions in the United States. Buttigieg is running a campaign based on more than party loyalty, and has a track record that shows he strives for pragmatic politics.  

Shared Optimism

When looking at how important Buttigieg’s personality is to his campaign, one cannot overlook his optimism and how it resonates with millennials. Millennials are the first generation predicted to be economically worse off than their parents. Despite this, 80 percent of millennials feel optimistic about their economic prospects and say their standard of living will improve, a Pew Research Center survey shows. While Joe Biden is running a campaign about returning to a pre-Trump America, Buttigieg’s campaign website boldly proclaims: “We cannot find greatness in the past.” Millennials and younger voters want a new generation of leadership, one that realizes that there is greatness in the future.  

But while Buttigieg’s campaign has been successful at targeting millennials, he continues to struggle to connect with the African-American community as a whole. In June, tensions continued to rise after a South Bend police officer fatally shot a local black man. Buttigieg will thus need to make inroads with the African-American community in order to have a chance to win the presidency. The task is difficult considering that the field this year includes more established candidates and candidates of color, whom voters of color are more acquainted with. However, even Biden, who created a legacy for himself by serving under Obama for eight years, is now facing scrutiny for past policy decisions regarding busing and the 1994 crime bill. 

Buttigieg has continued to push with some targeted measures. He revealed his Douglass plan to offer more opportunities to the African-American community by reforming credit scoring and voting, and by increasing the government’s contracts with minority-owned businesses by 25 percent. Buttigieg recognizes his problems and is aiming to resolve them. In 2020, Buttitieg’s campaign will be defined by whether or not he can expand his successes with millenials to other crucial groups.

Image Credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr

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