Tag: Mayor Pete Buttigieg

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Pete Buttigieg Continues To Surge In Iowa

Mayor Pete Buttigieg campaigns in Iowa

After taking lots of hits and attacks for his time working at global consultancy firm McKinsey, skepticism over his appeal to black voters, and the whole ‘wine cave’ thing, Democratic White House hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg is still surging in Iowa.

From Iowa Starting Line:

Despite the new scrutiny, Buttigieg has seen his crowd sizes in Iowa swell this month, including five separate events with over 1,000 people each. Among those were a statement-making 2,000-person rally in Coralville, right in Iowa’s most liberal county, and a West Des Moines event this weekend that brought out 1,200.

Between those, he took a tour of rural counties and mid-size towns, often producing turnouts that local Democratic leaders say are the largest they’ve seen since Barack Obama’s 2008 caucus campaign. Around 500 showed up in Ottumwa and Fort Madison each for Buttigieg yesterday, and over 240 packed a theater in Centerville, a town of 5,500 near the Missouri border.

The Starting Line notes that many Iowans they spoke to have heard very little, or aren’t concerned about, issues with his time at McKinsey.

Here’s what some of the town hall attendees had to say about the 37-year-old openly gay candidate:

• Julie Gentz, 69, retired educator: “I just need some hope. I feel like this is a Kennedy moment … It’s a Kennedy moment in one respect, and it’s an Obama moment in the fact that he’s not just your run-of-the-mill politician.”

• Laura Miller, 30: “He has his way of uniting all of us from different backgrounds and cultures, and just reminding us that we’re all human.”

• Roger Mills, retiree: “I think he’s a person who has a great deal of spirituality in him, and I think he’s a person who can lead us into a different form of consciousness of peace and love. He quotes passages from the Bible. That intrigues me. It gives me hope.”

• Tom Lucas, veteran: “He speaks from the heart because he is a veteran. It’s not a canned speech from some speechwriter. He’s worn the boots, he’s part of the brotherhood.”

The most recent poll, from Iowa State University, shows Buttigieg with a three-point lead over his fellow Democrats. RealClearPolitics average of Iowa polls shows him up 2 points.

Also, two of the other top tier candidates – Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)  – may find themselves locked down in Washington as part of the jury in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. That could leave a wider opening for Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden to campaign across Iowa in the weeks leading up to the February 3 caucuses.

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News Round-Up: December 19, 2019

Tyler James (via Instagram)

Some news items you might have missed:

• InstaHunks: Hottie Tyler James has folks’ safety in mind when he asks, “Anyone need their driveway shoveled?” Is that a euphemism…?

• The Hill: The latest Iowa State University–Civiqs poll finds Mayor Pete Buttigieg currently leading the race in Iowa at 24 percent, followed by Sanders at 21 percent, Warren at 18 percent and former Vice President Joe Biden at 15 percent. No other candidate is polling above 4 percent in the survey.

• Buzzfeed News: High school students in Missouri responded to Pride flags being handed out by flying the Confederate flag. After the racist flag was removed, the school decided there would be no disciplinary action taken hoping instead to “teach our students to respect each other and to respect different viewpoints on a variety of social issues.” Note – LGBTQ pride is pride; the Confederate flag stands for a war fought to keep slavery.

• DListed: The highest-paid YouTuber is an eight-year-old named Ryan Kaji who has earned $26 million this year reviewing toys.

• NBC News: Until Wednesday afternoon, the fictional country from the popular 2018 Marvel superhero movie “Black Panther” was listed as a free trade agreement partner of the United States by the USDA’s tariff tracker.

• Des Moines Register: An Ames man was sentenced Wednesday to about 16 years in prison after he set fire to a church LGBTQ flag in June. Adolfo Martinez, 30, of Ames, last month was found guilty of a hate crime — a class “D” felony — third-degree harassment and reckless use of fire.

• NY Post: While Donald Trump was hunkered down in the White House monitoring impeachment proceedings Wednesday, his predecessor in the Oval Office was hitting the links in Hawaii. Barack Obama — a native of Honolulu — was photographed on the course at the Mid-Pacific Country Club in Lanikai, O’ahu, playing a round of golf under sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s.

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Veterans Group Endorses Mayor Pete Buttigieg For President

Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the campaign trail (via Buttigieg campaign/FB)

The New York Times reports the political action committee that supports liberal veterans running for office has endorsed Mayor Pete Buttigieg in his run for the Democratic presidential nomination:

VoteVets, the political action committee that backs liberal veterans running for office, has endorsed Pete Buttigieg for president, the first major organization to support him.

The endorsement brings Mr. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a former Navy officer who served in Afghanistan, new defenders in a 2020 Democratic presidential contest that has seen better known candidates drop out as polling shows early-state voters coalescing around the four leading candidates.

Jon Soltz, the co-founder and chairman of VoteVets, said that other campaigns weren’t taking on Mr. Buttigieg directly but that they were using opposition research to try and “hold back his momentum.”

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New Buttigieg Ad Goes Up In South Carolina

Mayor Pete Buttigieg listens to an African-American woman speak.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg listens to an African-American woman speak.

The Hill reports Mayor Pete Buttigieg is putting $2 million behind his first campaign ad buy in South Carolina in advance of the upcoming Democratic primary in February.

As has been widely reported, while the mayor has surged in Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s struggled with attracting black voters, which explains the new ad in South Carolina where black voters make up 60+ percent of the Democratic voting base.

Says Buttigieg in the ad:

“In our White House, you won’t have to shake your head and ask yourself, ‘Whatever happened to ‘I was hungry and you fed me. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’ When I say we’ve got to unify the American people it doesn’t mean pretending that we’re all the same. It means unifying around issues from wages and family leave to gun violence and immigration. The hope of an American experience defined not by exclusion but by belonging.”

According to the RealClearPolitics average, former Vice President Joe Biden has a strong lead in South Carolina, at 35.3 percent followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), at 16.3 percent, and Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-Vt.), at 12.8 percent. Buttigieg is in fourth place, at 6.5 percent.

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Podcast: Pete Buttigieg, Palo Alto Police Brutality, Gay Panic Defense, World AIDS Day

In this episode of The Randy Report - France bans conversion therapy, Florida Republicans push "Don't Say Gay" bill, bad news for Ellen DeGeneres, Adam Rippon has good news, and the award-winning Western short film STEAM! premieres on Revry.

The Randy Report podcast delivers the week's top stories in a quick, convenient podcast - 'the 60 Minutes of gay news - only shorter'

In this week’s podcast:

• A journalist wrote a scathing piece about Mayor Pete Buttigieg and the mayor called his critic to listen

• NYC sees a significant drop in new HIV infections

• A Palo Alto police brutality case reaches a settlement

• The gay panic defense could be bye-bye in New Jersey

• Kasey Musgraves has a new ‘tres gay’ Christmas special on Amazon Prime

• Award-winning out singer Matt Zarley drops his take on the holiday classic, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”

* Observing World AIDS Day this year

Link to Mark King’s essay – Link to JoeMyGod’s essay

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Podcast: Pete Buttigieg, RuPaul, Tom Goss & The Epic Fail Of ‘Straight Pride’

In this episode of The Randy Report - France bans conversion therapy, Florida Republicans push "Don't Say Gay" bill, bad news for Ellen DeGeneres, Adam Rippon has good news, and the award-winning Western short film STEAM! premieres on Revry.

The Randy Report podcast delivers the week's top stories in a quick, convenient podcast - 'the 60 Minutes of gay news - only shorter'

In this week’s podcast:

• Sen. Kamala Harris calls Mayor Pete Buttigieg “naive” for relating his experience as a gay man to other marginalized communities.

• A homophobic photographer in Kentucky has filed a lawsuit to block Louisville’s Fairness Ordinance just in case a gay couple were to ask her to shoot their wedding.

• Three federal judges have blocked a new rule announced by the Health and Human Services Department that would allow healthcare professionals to deny service to LGBTQs.

• The Straight Pride event in Dallas was the biggest fail yet.

• Netflix releases teaser video for RuPaul’s upcoming scripted comedy series AJ and The Queen.

• Out singer/songwriter Tom Goss’s new album explores new emotional Territories.

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.

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Leading In Early Voting States, Buttigieg Can Expect Attacks At Dem Debate Tonight

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (image via Instagram)

As the Democratic presidential candidates take to the debate stage tonight, expect Mayor Pete Buttigieg to take some incoming fire after recent polls show him surging in two early voting states.

Buttigieg is the first openly gay presidential candidate to take the lead in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

The latest polling from Monmouth University for the upcoming Iowa caucus’ was first to show out Mayor Pete in the top spot.

That poll showed the South Bend mayor ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden by 3 points and Sen. Elizabeth Warren for 4 points.

Here are the results – the numbers in parenthesis represent standing when combining first and second place results:

• Mayor Pete Buttigieg 22% (37)
• Former Vice President Joe Biden 19% (29)
• Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 18% (35)
• Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) 13% (25)
• Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 5% (14)
• Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) 3% (9)
• Billionaire Tom Steyer 3% (6)
• Entrepreneur Andrew Yang 3% (4)

The latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll shows Mayor Pete Buttigieg has jumped 16 points since the Register’s last poll to land at the top of the Democratic presidential field.

• Mayor Pete Buttigieg 25%
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren 16%
• Former Vice President Joe Biden 15%
• Sen. Bernie Sanders 15%
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar 6%

And in New Hampshire, the Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll released last night shows Buttigieg opening up a ten point lead over his competitors with 25 percent support. Biden and Warren tied in second place with 15 percent, and Sanders drops to 9 percent support.

Despite all that good news for Buttigieg and his campaign team, there have been some not-so-great bumps in the road.

For one, video from a 2010 ‘Meet the Candidates Night’ during his attempt to become Indiana state treasurer has re-emerged on Twitter. The event was hosted by two Republican groups with connections to the Tea Party.

In the video, Buttigieg says in his opening remarks: “There are some, especially in my party, who think that the Tea Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican Party. But there are many others who believe that the Tea Party is motivated by real concerns about the direction of our government and the responsiveness of our government to citizens. and above all, a frustration with business as usual. That is what motivated me to run.” He also notes, “We may come from often very different perspectives.”

Some progressive Twitter warriors have called the remarks “disqualifying.”

But there’s some backstory to this appearance. It seems Buttigieg’s opponent wouldn’t debate him, so Pete went to the ‘Meet the Candidates’ event as his only chance to share a stage with his opponent.

And if you watch the video clip, he doesn’t say he embraces the Tea Party. He makes a point to say he “comes from a very different perspective” while admitting people from both parties share frustrations about government being run as “business as usual.”

In fact, President Obama said something very similar just a short time later when he addressed an MTV/BET Town Hall.

“I think there are a lot of people who are involved in the Tea Party who have very real and sincere concerns about spending that’s out of control or generally philosophically believe that the government should be less involved in certain aspects of American life rather than more involved,” said Obama. “And they have every right and obligation as citizens to be involved and engaged in this process.”

The mayor’s campaign was also criticized for using a stock photo of Kenyan woman in materials released with his plan to address U.S. racism, “The Douglass Plan.”

In any case, you can certainly expect one of the mayor’s opponents to bring up some of these nuggets tonight during the Democratic debate tonight hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post.

The two-hour debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET.

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Buttigieg Takes The Lead In New Hampshire Poll

Via WMUR:

Mayor Pete Buttigieg has surged to the head of the Democratic presidential field in first-in-nation primary state New Hampshire, according to a new poll of likely primary voters released Tuesday.

The Saint Anselm College Survey Center poll of 255 likely Democratic primary voters shows that Buttigieg, supported by 25 percent, now holds a 10 percentage point lead over former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who are tied for second at 15 percent. Buttigieg is substantially ahead of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is in fourth place at 9 percent.

Rounding out the top 10 were Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 6 percent; billionaire activist Tom Steyer of California at 5 percent; U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey at 3 percent each; entrepreneur Andrew Yang of New York at 2 percent and California Sen. Kamala Harris at 1 percent. Thirteen percent of those polled said they were undecided.

Respondents were also asked who was the strongest candidate to go head to head against Donald Trump in the general election, and Biden leads in that lane by a mile.

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Iowa: Pete Buttigieg Jumps To Top Of Des Moines Register Poll

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (image via campaign Instagram)

Ok, the other poll wasn’t an anomaly.

The latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll shows Mayor Pete Buttigieg has jumped 16 points since the Register’s last poll to land at the top of the Democratic presidential field.

• Mayor Pete Buttigieg 25%
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren 16%
• Former Vice President Joe Biden 15%
• Sen. Bernie Sanders 15%
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar 6%

From the Des Moines Register:

Since September, Buttigieg has risen 16 percentage points among Iowa’s likely Democratic caucusgoers, with 25% now saying he is their first choice for president.

For the first time in the Register’s Iowa Poll, he bests rivals Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who are now clustered in competition for second place and about 10 percentage points behind the South Bend, Indiana, mayor.

Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, led the September Iowa Poll, when 22% said she was their first choice. In this poll, her support slips to 16%.

Former Vice President Biden, who led the Register’s first three Iowa Polls of the 2020 caucus cycle, has continued to slide, falling 5 percentage points to 15%.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, also garners 15% — a 4 percentage point rise.

Those four candidates began to pull away from the crowded field of Democrats and separate into a top tier of contenders in June’s Iowa Poll.

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Podcast: Mayor Pete Surges In Iowa, Indiana Teen Stands Up For Himself, LGBTQ Representation On TV Hits All-Time High

In this episode of The Randy Report - France bans conversion therapy, Florida Republicans push "Don't Say Gay" bill, bad news for Ellen DeGeneres, Adam Rippon has good news, and the award-winning Western short film STEAM! premieres on Revry.

The Randy Report podcast delivers the week's top stories in a quick, convenient podcast - 'the 60 Minutes of gay news - only shorter'

In this week’s podcast:

• Mayor Pete Buttigieg has surged to number one in the latest polling for the upcoming Iowa caucuses

• Gay men in Malaysia have been sentenced to months in prison and being whipped with a cane for having sex at a private residence

• A gay teen heard the slur ‘faggot’ one time too many – and took care of it. Link to story at The Randy Report – therandyreport.com/a-gay-teen-had-…g-called-fggot/

• Two male dancers were featured on the UK’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and the world didn’t end. Link to the story on The Randy Report – therandyreport.com/strictly-come-d…tunning-effect/

• Get ready small-town America – the queens are coming!

• Representation for the LGBTQ community on TV rose to an all-time high according to the ‘Where We Are On TV report from GLAAD

All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report.

If you enjoy catching up on LGBTQ news in a quick podcast, I’d appreciate it if you would share The Randy Report with your friends. I like to think of the podcast as ‘the 60 Minutes of gay news…only shorter.’

Hit the play button and thanks for listening 🙂