Pete Buttigieg is just waiting for Joe Biden to flop.
The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and 2020 presidential candidate would rather focus on health care than impeachment. The Democrat touts his small-town roots and often shares that he's still well in the middle class. And he's unapologetically campaigning with a call to "re-center our politics." It all makes Buttigieg essentially a younger version of the former vice president, and he's just looking for an opportunity to take Biden's front-running place, Bloomberg reports.
With Biden's newfound place in President Trump's Ukraine scandal, that vision may actually come to fruition. Biden's stumbling debate performances and endless gaffe stream have already cost him his top spot in a number of polls, and the uncertainty of his involvement with his son's business dealings in Ukraine could degrade him even further.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Of course, that top polling spot has typically fallen to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and not Buttigieg. That's where Iowa makes the difference. Buttigieg has never really cracked the fourth-place slot in nationwide and early-state polls, but in a recent Iowa poll, he's statistically tied with Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for second. Iowa is also "an overwhelmingly white state kicking off a race in which [Buttigieg] has struggled with non-white voters," making it even more of a boon, Bloomberg writes. The following primaries and caucuses don't look as promising, meaning Buttigieg needs to use Iowa as his time to shine.
Read more about Buttigieg's Biden-esque campaign at Bloomberg.
-
French finances: what’s behind country’s debt problem?The Explainer Political paralysis has led to higher borrowing costs and blocked urgent deficit-reducing reforms to social protection
-
Climate change is getting under our skinUnder the radar Skin conditions are worsening because of warming temperatures
-
Crossword: October 14, 2025The Week's daily crossword
-
Trump DOJ indicts New York AG Letitia JamesSpeed Read New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted as Trump’s Justice Department pursues charges against his political opponents
-
Judge blocks Trump’s Guard deployment in ChicagoSpeed Read The president is temporarily blocked from federalizing the Illinois National Guard or deploying any Guard units in the state
-
Trump urges jail for Illinois, Chicago leadersSpeed Read The Texas National Guard begin operations in the Chicago area
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-offSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to ChicagoSpeed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in OregonSpeed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denialSpeed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartelsspeed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
