Buttigieg << BOOT ehj ehj or BOO tuh juhj >>, Pete (1982-…), became secretary of the United States Department of Transportation in the Cabinet of President Joe Biden in 2021. Previously, Buttigieg served as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, from 2012 to 2020. In 2019, he became the first openly gay candidate in U.S. history to campaign for presidential nomination by a major political party.
Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg was born in South Bend on Jan. 19, 1982. He was class president and valedictorian at St. Joseph’s High School in South Bend. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in history and literature. He then received a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he studied economics, philosophy, and politics. Buttigieg speaks several languages and plays the piano and guitar.
From 2007 to 2010, Buttigieg worked for a consulting firm in Chicago. In 2009, he joined the U.S. Navy Reserve, where he served as an intelligence officer. He left the reserve in 2017 with the rank of lieutenant. In 2010, Buttigieg won the Democratic nomination for Indiana state treasurer, but he lost in the general election. Late that year, Buttigieg began a campaign for mayor of South Bend. In May 2011, he won the Democratic primary for mayor. He won the mayoral race by a comfortable margin in November and took office in January 2012.
In 2014, Buttigieg took a 7-month leave of absence from the mayoral office to serve with the Navy Reserve. His service included a 6-month tour of duty in Afghanistan. In June 2015, Buttigieg publicly revealed that he was gay. He won reelection five months later. As mayor, Buttigieg won praise for his efforts to attract pedestrian traffic and investment to downtown South Bend. He also directed efforts to renovate or demolish hundreds of vacant homes. In 2018, he married Chasten Glezman, a schoolteacher. Later in 2018, Buttigieg announced that he would not seek reelection as mayor in 2019 in order to better focus on his presidential campaign.
In February 2019, Buttigieg published a memoir, Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and a Model for America’s Future. Two months later, he announced his candidacy for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States. Buttigieg gained notice for his appeals to working-class voters, but dropped out of the presidential race in March 2020. In February 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed Buttigieg to lead the U.S. Transportation Department.
