Pete Buttigieg: Like Him or Not, He Made a Splash

Former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has pulled out of the race after coming in fourth in the South Carolina primary, he announced Sunday. Perhaps the reason for his loss is his inability to appeal to voters of color, primarily black and Latino voters.

Buttigieg was able to dominate states with a large number of white voters such as Iowa but did poorly in states with a notably higher POC vote like Nevada. 

The openly gay mayor from Indiana has had a hefty campaign. Buttigieg collected more money in a span of three months than any other democratic candidate in the race with him. He appealed to some, but many were still against his policy ideas on subjects such as Medicare.

Buttigieg’s approach to Medicare focuses on Medicare For All Who Want It. “Everyone will be able to opt in to an affordable, comprehensive public alternative,” he plan claimed. “This affordable public plan will incentivize private insurers to compete on price and bring down costs. If private insurers are not able to offer something dramatically better, this public plan will create a natural glide-path to Medicare for All.”

Buttigieg’s plan allows people to opt into the public circuit of medicare by eliminating the competition of private insurers.

Of course, ideally, universal health care would be the option everyone would enjoy. However, taking a look at our current system, there’s definitely a lot of work to be done. Mayor Pete’s medicare plan offered a compromise, which some saw promise in and some did not. 

His experience with POC voters was poor. The backlash began after the demotion of a police chief. Police telephone records have officers using racist language in 2012, which led to the demotion of South Bend’s first African-American police chief, Darryl Boykins. Indiana’s political reaction to the shooting of Eric Logan by a police officer caused outrage. With people looking for a solution to the mistreatment of African-American people in South Bend, emotions ran high, and many thought he handled it poorly. 

During Buttigieg’s mayoral reign, there was a boom in the economy, but poverty among black folks remained the same.

Regardless of the opinions of others, Buttigieg made it further than what most people expected. He was able to bring in new ideas surrounding outdated discussion issues and queer representation despite the immense backlash brought to him for just that.