Pete Buttigieg has a very simple answer when asked whether America is finally ready to elect a gay president: “Of course.”
The former Transportation secretary made the comment during an interview with Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press, where the conversation touched on Kamala Harris’s 2025 memoir, 107 Days. Harris wrote that Buttigieg was her first choice among the candidates considered for her 2024 running mate, but said that, if she were a straight white man, he “would have been an ideal partner.” She ultimately viewed a ticket pairing a Black woman with a gay man as carrying too much political risk.
For Buttigieg, however, the question of whether a gay man can win the presidency appears considerably less complicated.
“Of Course”
“I wouldn’t have run for president in the first place if I didn’t believe that,” Buttigieg told Welker.
Buttigieg pointed to his own experience in South Bend, Indiana, where he served as mayor. After coming out publicly as gay, he was reelected with roughly 80% of the vote in 2015, an experience he has previously cited when discussing how voters respond to candidates whose identities might once have been considered political liabilities.
“What’s on people’s minds isn’t about you, your identity as a candidate. It’s about them. It’s about their lives,” the former presidential hopeful said, arguing that voters are primarily concerned with their own circumstances and the direction of the country.
His 2020 presidential campaign also broke new ground. The former Transportation Secretary became the first openly gay candidate to win a major party presidential contest when he won the Iowa caucuses, although he ultimately ended his campaign and endorsed Joe Biden. Biden later appointed him secretary of Transportation, making Buttigieg the first openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet position.
READ: Pete Buttigieg’s Darkest 24 Hours Are Now Under Investigation, As It Should Be
So, Is He Running Again?
That brings us to the question hovering around Buttigieg once again: 2028.
He has not announced a presidential campaign, but his recent comments have kept the possibility firmly in the conversation. In August, Buttigieg appeared on Steven Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO and was asked to characterize his inclination toward a 2028 run.
His answer? “I’m more inclined than not.”
He immediately added that there is still plenty he does not know about what the coming years will bring, including the effect another campaign would have on his family.
A Strange Full-Circle Moment
There is also an oddly fitting footnote to Buttigieg’s political history right now.
In 2019, Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl were involved in a false sexual-assault story targeting Buttigieg during his first presidential campaign. The alleged victim, Hunter Kelly, told The Advocate that he had not consented to the fake story and denied ever being sexually assaulted by Buttigieg.
Now, years later, the same pair have appeared in a 60 Minutes investigation into a burgeoning pardon-broker business. Hidden-camera footage showed them pitching services to a prospective client seeking a presidential pardon for $300,000.
Buttigieg, meanwhile, is talking about something much bigger than an old smear campaign: whether America is ready to see an openly gay person in the Oval Office.
His answer remains remarkably uncomplicated.
“Of course.”