DES MOINES, Iowa —⁠ Pete Buttigieg’s Democratic presidential rivals took turns trying to portray him as a small-town mayor as the 37-year-old surges in Iowa.

At the Iowa Democratic Party’s fall fundraiser on Friday night, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet compared the size of the budget he managed as Denver Public Schools superintendent to the budget Buttigieg oversaw as mayor of South Bend, Indiana.