Pete Buttigieg hasn’t been confirmed as President-elect Joe Biden’s transportation secretary. Yet, speculation has begun about his future job prospects beyond that post, including commander in chief.
Biden’s decision to pick Buttigieg, 38, for his Cabinet provides the two-term South Bend, Indiana, mayor and former White House hopeful with the “perfect” springboard into a second presidential bid, according to political analysts.
And some, such as Dan Schnur, an independent at the University of Southern California, hint it’s to the detriment of another vanquished White House primary opponent: Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“Biden has done Buttigieg a huge favor, and I can’t imagine that Harris’s team is very happy about it,” Schnur told the Washington Examiner.
Heading the transportation department is typically a low-key Cabinet position, Schnur explained.
“But given the emphasis that Biden will be putting on infrastructure, Buttigieg will be one of the most high-profile members of the Cabinet,” he said of the short- and long-term benefits.
He added, “It will also be an ideal platform from which he can develop relationships with state and local politicians across the country, which will be a very useful network in his next campaign.”
Buttigieg backers were abuzz this week after rumors circulated that Biden was considering naming the Rhodes Scholar and Afghanistan War veteran as his ambassador to China.
Yet, Buttigieg’s supporters are just as jazzed about him becoming Biden’s transportation nominee-designate because the department’s work will undergird Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. The McKinsey and Company consultant turned Rust Belt mayor will be the public face of major investments and projects. And he’ll have the beefed-up credentials of having spearheaded a federal agency the next time he pitches himself to voters.
Cabinet secretaries don’t always realize their presidential ambitions. Just ask Obama administration Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. But a spot on Biden’s bench was one of the few opportunities through which Buttigieg could advance his career, given the political constraints placed on Democrats in Republican Indiana.
In fact, Buttigieg already tried. It was his 2010 failed attempt to become Indiana’s treasurer, his first statewide race, which led him to vie for mayor in 2011. He eventually elected South Bend’s second-youngest city executive at the age of 29.
Even before contesting the White House, Buttigieg had signaled his desire to leave the Hoosier State for Washington, D.C. In 2017, for instance, he ran for the Democratic National Committee’s chairmanship.
Buttigieg’s presidential bid was perceived as a long shot. Yet, Buttigieg exceeded expectations during the primary by narrowly winning Iowa and finishing second in New Hampshire. Now, he’s being rewarded for dropping out before Super Tuesday to consolidate centrist momentum behind Biden, preventing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders from clinching the nomination.
In March, Biden compared Buttigieg to his deceased son Beau, whom Biden described as White House material. And on Wednesday, he called Buttigieg “a new voice” with “new ideas, determined to move past all politics.”
“Pete’s got a great perspective: of a mayor that solves problems and brings people together,” Biden said during Buttigieg’s rollout event in Wilmington, Delaware. “He’s got a vision of a next-generation leader with the experience and the temperament to lead change today.”
But it was hard to miss the deference demonstrated toward Harris, Biden’s heir apparent.
Harris opted out of attending Buttigieg’s unveiling, with an aide telling reporters that she was stuck in Washington, D.C., because of inclement weather. Biden repeated the reason unprompted after her remarks.
“I called the vice president-elect and thanked her for not getting on a highway in the middle of a storm, the storm about to come, to come up here,” he said. “She wanted to be here.”
During his address, Biden underscored his Cabinet’s historic nature, including Buttigieg as potentially the first openly gay Senate-confirmed secretary. Yet, he went to great lengths to highlight Harris’s trailblazing status, too, as the first woman and minority woman voted vice president. Buttigieg thanked Harris as well for her “leadership,” “encouragement,” and “friendship.”
And the event was staged after Harris gave her first solo interview as the next vice president, a sit-down with ABC’s Good Morning America.
A former Buttigieg staffer downplayed any tension between the old boss and Harris, suggesting to the Washington Examiner that the duo could pair up for the 2024 general election.
Harris could “balance the ticket in ’24 if she runs with a moderate white Midwestern guy,” they said.
A Democratic strategist disagreed. This source conceded that Buttigieg had “heft” now after “succeeding just on pure charm and charisma” and “probably white privilege.” But the strategist doubted that he would compete against Harris in 2024 or be her vice presidential nominee despite being “super ambitious.”
“I don’t know what he brings to the ticket,” they said. “That’s not a good look for him.”
The strategist continued, “I think he’ll wait it out. You went from being the mayor of South Bend to a failed DNC chairman candidate to a presidential candidate no one’s ever heard of to the transportation secretary. That’s a pretty good run.”
