Stephen Colbert, Whoopi Goldberg, & Pete Buttigieg - The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.

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Pete Buttigieg ‘won’t take lectures’ from Rush Limbaugh or any Trump supporter

Pete Buttigieg


Radio host doubts Americans ready for gay candidate

Democrat ‘saddened for what Republican party has become’

Martin Pengelly
@MartinPengelly

Sun 16 Feb 2020 12.12 EST


Pete Buttigieg is “not going to be lectured on family values from the likes of Rush Limbaugh or anybody who supports Donald J Trump as the moral as well as political leader of the United States”, the Democratic presidential contender said on Sunday.Biden and Sanders take aim at Bloomberg as Nevada caucuses loom

Limbaugh, a conservative talk radio host controversially honoured by Trump, caused controversy this week when he questioned whether Americans were ready to vote for a gay candidate for president.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Buttigieg added: “America has moved on and we should have politics of belonging that welcomes everybody. That’s what the American people are for. And I am saddened for what the Republican party has become if they embrace that kind of homophobic rhetoric.”

Chasten Buttigieg emerges as Mayor Pete's secret weapon

Alex Gangitano
5 hrs ago

© The Hill Chasten Buttigieg emerges as Mayor Pete's secret weapon 

Chasten Buttigieg has emerged as a star in the Democratic primary, becoming a key part of his husband Pete Buttigieg's campaign and helping the South Bend, Ind., mayor stand out in a crowded field.


The 29-year-old school humanities and drama junior high teacher from Michigan not only functions as a much sought-after campaign spokesman and adviser, but he is also helping humanize the first gay major presidential candidate in a country that only legalized same-sex marriage four years ago.

But as Pete Buttigieg, 37, becomes a major contender for the nomination, questions are emerging about whether the gay couple will have the same appeal in more conservative parts of the country as they do with Democratic primary voters.

"The bigger question is: if he were to win the nomination how voters in key states who might not know any married gay couples and be uncomfortable with their relationship may react, and I think that remains to be seen," Tim Miller, former communications director to Jeb Bush and GOP strategist.

For now, as Pete Buttigieg, also widely known as Mayor Pete, has surged in the Democratic polls, so has the attention lavished on Chasten Buttigieg, who took a leave from the Montessori Academy to join him on the campaign trail.

Though Pete Buttigieg is not the first gay candidate to seek a party's presidential nomination -- Fred Karger ran in the Republican primary in 2012 -- he is widely seen as the first with a genuine shot at winning.

And he has done so by making his biography as a gay Christian millennial, Rhodes Scholar and Afghanistan war veteran a key part of his campaign, including his love for Chasten Buttigieg.

The couple speak openly about their relationship, including how they met through a dating app, their first date, and their marriage in 2018. They also own two dogs, Buddy and Truman, and Pete Buttigieg has talked about eventually having kids.

Chasten Buttigieg now introduces his husband at some stops and also branches out on his own, including addressing the Human Rights Campaign in Houston and visiting the Ali Forney Center, a shelter for homeless LGBTQ young people, in New York.

Pete Buttigieg's husband has also seen his social media following surge, and now counts over 100,000 followers on Instagram and around 300,000 followers on Twitter -- more than some of the 2020 candidates in the race like Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) or Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).

That visibility is unusual for a spouse or partner at such an early stage in the primary process, let alone a gay couple that remains one of the youngest in the Democratic field of over 20 candidates.

"Its still very odd for me to see what the most normal looking couple, or the least fretful," said Mark Rom, associate professor at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy, "is the gay couple in the race."

No other Democratic contenders has seen their partner or spouse have such a visible part of the campaign, though they have made brief cameos, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) husband in an Instagram video. Meanwhile, actress Rosario Dawson has talked about dating Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).