INDIANA: Openly Gay South Bend Mayor To Retire At End Of Term As 2020 White House Ambitions Swirl

Indianapolis Monthly reports:

Pete Buttigieg is running. Today, it’s along the St. Joseph River on a crisp and gray October morning in South Bend, as the mayor tried to clear his mind in the middle of a packed day. A meeting with the NAACP. A meeting with staff to discuss the city’s $368 million budget.

In the very near future, Buttigieg might be running less literally, on the campaign trail in Iowa or New Hampshire. Right? I asked him, as his slim 5-foot-9 frame was bounding over still-green grass yet to turn brown ahead of another unforgiving Northern Indiana winter.

“I don’t know,” Buttigieg answered. It’s a question he’s been getting a lot lately. These are heady times for the South Bend mayor and possible 2020 Democratic presidential contender.

Buttigieg is a Harvard graduate, a Rhodes Scholar, and an Afghanistan veteran.

Serving South Bend has been the great honor of my life and I’m looking forward to more good work in the remaining year of my current term.

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) December 17, 2018

I also know this is not a job to hold forever, and it is time to give new leadership a chance to lead our city forward. My time in office here will end at the end of 2019, and I will not seek a third term.

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) December 17, 2018

I am inexpressibly grateful to all who have given me this chance to help guide South Bend’s extraordinary comeback in this decade.

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) December 17, 2018