Pete Buttigieg is becoming a prolific endorser of Democrats, with some clues to his future

By Patrick Svitek, CNN

(CNN) — Shawn Harris is aware of the political bind he faces in northwest Georgia.

“Because I live in a ruby-red district, I can’t have every nationally known Democrat come here and support me because it doesn’t fit what we’re trying to do,” said Harris, who is running for a congressional district formerly represented by Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene. President Donald Trump carried the district by more than 30 percentage points in 2024.

But after Pete Buttigieg reached out to Harris ahead of a March special election runoff for the seat, Harris made an exception and welcomed the former transportation secretary to the district. Harris lost in the runoff but significantly overperformed past Democratic margins there. He hopes Buttigieg will return this fall for the general election.

Unlike many potential 2028 contenders, Buttigieg doesn’t hold a government position. He’s instead become one of the most prolific midterm campaigners among possible presidential candidates, backing candidates in more than 30 races and traveling to over a dozen states.

Those endorsements give Buttigieg a record to tout on a potential future debate stage, especially as the party looks for leaders who can break through in Republican territory. Buttigieg is also quietly building a network of allies and working to address a key weakness that ultimately doomed his 2020 White House bid.

In a statement to CNN, Buttigieg said that he wants “to be useful to citizens organizing to fix broken systems, and candidates who represent a better version of our politics.”

He appears to be looking to help Black Democrats in particular, a constituency with whom he struggled mightily in his 2020 presidential campaign. His dearth of support among Black voters was a glaring weakness as he otherwise rose from the mayorship of South Bend, Indiana, to become a top-tier candidate in the 2020 Democratic nominating fight.

Now, he is supporting up-and-coming Black Democrats in the midterms such as Harris, Aaron Ford for Nevada governor and Jasmine Clark for an open House seat east of Atlanta. Buttigieg also supported another Black Democrat, Chedrick Greene, who won a hard-fought special election for Michigan state Senate earlier this month where the party’s majority in the chamber was on the line.

Buttigieg, who passed on a US Senate run last year from Michigan — where he now resides — enjoys more political freedom than most other possible 2028 contenders. Some have focused on the midterms in more targeted ways, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who led the redrawing of his state’s congressional map to favor Democrats. Others must balance their national ambitions with reelection campaigns in November.

Buttigieg has his own political group, Win the Era, that grew out of his 2020 campaign, but several of his midterm endorsements are also aligning with The Bench, a new group run by some of his former aides, including 2020 campaign spokesman Andrew Mamo, that says it is “recruiting and supporting the next generation of Democratic leaders.”

Buttigieg has appeared with candidates in more traditionally competitive states such as Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina and Ohio. But he’s also gone to Republican strongholds like Montana and Oklahoma.

Jaime Harrison, a former Democratic National Committee chairman from South Carolina, said Buttigieg has been “extremely active and I think that’s a good thing.” But he also name-checked other potential contenders who he said have been helpful to candidates and state parties, as well as visited South Carolina: Newsom, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, California Rep. Ro Khanna and former ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel.

“This is going to be the biggest midterms of our lifetimes, and so it’s important to put points on the board,” Harrison said.

Earlier this month, Buttigieg traveled to Butte, Montana, to campaign for a ballot measure to ban corporate money in state politics. A day later, he was in rural western North Carolina to stump with Jamie Ager, a Democrat looking to flip a House seat in a district that Trump last carried by 10 percentage points in 2024.

Speaking inside a barn adorned with string lights, Buttigieg said Ager, a fourth-generation farmer, reflected a need for “leaders with integrity, leaders with heart, leaders who are connected to a sense of place.”

Wading into intraparty fights

Some of Buttigieg’s endorsements have put him in the middle of spirited intraparty fights.

In backing Josh Turek for Senate in Iowa, for example, Buttigieg jumped into a competitive primary where Turek’s rival, Zach Wahls, is pitching himself as more aligned with Democrats hungry for change in their party.

Buttigieg also took a risk in backing Luke Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, Connecticut, in his primary challenge to longtime Rep. John Larson. It was the first time Buttigieg had endorsed a Democratic primary challenger, and four days later, Bronin scored a major upset by beating out Larson for the Democratic Party endorsement in the district. Buttigieg is the only national figure whom the campaign touts in the endorsements section of Bronin’s website.

Bronin said in an interview that he and Buttigieg built a relationship through their previous service as Navy intelligence officers and as mayors, as well as a shared desire to shake up their party.

“He represents the next generation of Democrats who are ready to bring some new energy to this fight, who are clear communicators, who have the courage to go everywhere to carry that message and are going to be key to rebuilding a party that’s strong enough to do what we have to do,” Bronin said.

Buttigieg backed another primary challenger Friday, endorsing Adam Peters, a former organizer for Buttigieg’s presidential campaign in Iowa. Peters is running against an older member of the Iowa state House.

In Montana, Buttigieg showed up to support the Montana Plan, which, if approved by voters, would prohibit corporations from making contributions in state and local election campaigns.

Jeff Mangan, a top organizer in the effort, said Buttigieg’s visit came together after he heard Buttigieg mention the ballot measure in a media interview a few months ago. Campaign organizers reached out to Buttigieg to provide more information, and he asked how he could be helpful. At a minimum, Mangan said, Buttigieg could provide a quote about campaign finance reform. At the maximum, Mangan said, Buttigieg could come out to Montana to campaign for it in person. Buttigieg chose the latter.

Mangan said there was “no negativity, no protests,” with Buttigieg’s appearance, a common refrain from campaigns with whom he has worked.

“There’s never been any headaches with Pete,” said Sandra Jauregui, a Nevada state lawmaker running for lieutenant governor who has had Buttigieg’s endorsement through multiple races.

Like with Bronin’s website, Buttigieg is the only national endorser whom Jauregui’s campaign touts online.

“I can bring Democrats in front of Pete,” she said, “but I can also bring moderate Republicans and nonpartisan too.”

Courting the Black vote

Buttigieg’s ability to compete for Black voters could be especially key if South Carolina, with its large Black population, remains the first state — or among the first states — during the Democratic presidential nominating process in 2028.

Buttigieg finished fourth in South Carolina in 2020 and ended his campaign a day later. He later endorsed Joe Biden, who had a breakthrough victory in South Carolina after winning the support of its most powerful Black politician, Rep. Jim Clyburn.

South Carolina Democratic leaders were in Washington last week to make their case to a Democratic National Committee panel that the state should keep its first-in-the-country status, which started in 2024 at Biden’s behest.

“(Black voters) should help shape the nomination from the beginning,” the state’s Democratic Party chair, Christale Spain, told the committee. “If Black voters are the backbone of the Democratic Party, then the calendar should reflect that.”

While Buttigieg is supporting several Black candidates in the midterms, he also spent last year helping three Black candidates for mayor across the country, including Randall Woodfin for reelection in Birmingham, Alabama; Barbara Drummond for an open seat in Mobile, Alabama; and Bruce Harrell for reelection in Seattle. Woodfin won, while Harrell and Drummond narrowly lost. Buttigieg also endorsed another Black mayor, Levar Stoney of Richmond, Virginia, in his unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor.

One of Buttigieg’s former 2020 rivals, Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders,  has been perhaps the most active among big-name Democrats in midterm involvement, though Sanders, 84, has suggested he is unlikely to run again.

Other 2028 prospects have carved out unique profiles with their midterm involvement. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is focusing heavily on flipping four House seats in his state as he seeks another term. Beshear, who is term-limited, is building relationships with gubernatorial candidates across the country as head of the Democratic Governors Association. And Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who also has a reelection campaign, helped his lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, win a hard-fought primary for Senate in March, setting her on a path to become a key Black ally in Washington.

Buttigieg also is not the only ambitious Democrat looking to prove their appeal in red states. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York visited Montana on Thursday to campaign for Sam Forstag, a Democratic candidate for the state’s 1st Congressional District, which Trump won by 11 points in 2024.

“I’m very aware of the fact that I’m coming here as a New Yorker and I know understandably that there’s a lot of suspicion around a city girl,” Ocasio-Cortez said. But, she added, “our struggles are far more common than our landscapes are different.”

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