“It’s a really weird cycle of anger and frustration and hope,” he told the paper. “You think it’s finally happening and you get so excited, and then it’s gone.”
Pete Buttigieg has had a rapid rise in Democratic politics, going from the mayor of South Bend, Ind., to a treasured role in a presidential administration in just a few years’ time. In between, he made an unsuccessful bid to become chair of the Democratic National Committee and ran for president.
But he has proved himself to be a deft communicator of Democratic messaging, and the White House has regularly employed him on TV and other media outlets as a leading member of Biden’s so-called Jobs Cabinet.
Buttigieg has previously said that growing up he drew inspiration from the life of James Hormel — the first openly gay U.S. ambassador, who died last week at the age of 88 — about what it meant to be a gay person in American politics and public life.
“I can remember watching the news,” Buttigieg said of Hormel’s nomination, which was denied a Senate floor vote by social conservatives and instead received a recess appointment by President Bill Clinton. “And I learned something about some of the limits that exist in this country when it comes to who is allowed to belong. But just as important, I saw how those limits could be challenged.”
