Pete Buttigieg is positioning himself as Joe Biden
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.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Political cartoons for December 14Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include a new White House flag, Venezuela negotiations, and more
-
Heavenly spectacle in the wilds of CanadaThe Week Recommends ‘Mind-bending’ outpost for spotting animals – and the northern lights
-
Facial recognition: a revolution in policingTalking Point All 43 police forces in England and Wales are set to be granted access, with those against calling for increasing safeguards on the technology
-
Senate votes down ACA subsidies, GOP alternativeSpeed Read The Senate rejected the extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, guaranteeing a steep rise in health care costs for millions of Americans
-
Abrego García freed from jail on judge’s orderSpeed Read The wrongfully deported man has been released from an ICE detention center
-
Indiana Senate rejects Trump’s gerrymander pushSpeed Read The proposed gerrymander would have likely flipped the state’s two Democratic-held US House seats
-
Democrat files to impeach RFK Jr.Speed Read Rep. Haley Stevens filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
-
$1M ‘Trump Gold Card’ goes live amid travel rule furorSpeed Read The new gold card visa offers an expedited path to citizenship in exchange for $1 million
-
US seizes oil tanker off VenezuelaSpeed Read The seizure was a significant escalation in the pressure campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
-
Judge orders release of Ghislaine Maxwell recordsSpeed Read The grand jury records from the 2019 prosecution of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will be made public
-
Miami elects first Democratic mayor in 28 yearsSpeed Read Eileen Higgins, Miami’s first woman mayor, focused on affordability and Trump’s immigration crackdown in her campaign
