But Davis also scolded Buttigieg, saying the mayor’s woes attracting support from communities of color “is not a new problem for him.”

“For us, this has been a consistent issue that has not gone away,” Davis said.

Asked if Buttigieg could win a general election, given his current low levels of support from people of color in the Democratic presidential primary, Davis said: “I doubt it. I sincerely doubt it.”

In an interview on CNN on Friday, Buttigieg acknowledged having disagreements with Davis but stressed that the councilman is just one person.

“Not to take you into the whole story of South Bend politics, but I respect him coming from a different place politically,” Buttigieg said. “Obviously, no one person speaks for black voters in South Bend, and I’m proud of the black supporters who know me best from Indiana and from South Bend who have not only supported our campaign but traveled with us and helped tell the story of our community.”

In addition to Biden’s strong support from African Americans in current Democratic primary polls, Davis also said that Biden “has an understanding of the Midwest,” having been on the Democratic ticket in 2008 when Barack Obama turned Indiana blue, a result he believes Biden can repeat in 2020.

“What he’s doing nationally, it’s not a fluke. It’s real,” Davis said, alluding to Biden’s double-digit lead in national primary polls. “His numbers are real throughout the country because people know him.”

Davis insisted his comment that Biden’s numbers are “not a fluke” wasn’t a jab at Buttigieg, who surged to first in Iowa’s flagship poll recently but hasn’t yet proved that he has staying power in the national nominating contest or in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

But Davis’ praise for Biden’s decades-long record was a contrast to Buttigieg’s thin résumé. Davis said there were some people in South Bend who wanted Buttigieg to stay there or run statewide to build up his credentials and run for president in four or eight years. Buttigieg, however, will end his run as mayor early next year.

Davis was impressed with the diversity of the staff Biden had in place when he launched his campaign in April, highlighting that Biden didn’t put a diverse team around him because he faced “political pressure” to do so. He said Buttigieg only prioritized diversity when he faced a political “crisis.”



“In [Buttigieg’s] administration, until he hired an African American woman to be the attorney, for several months in there, he didn’t have anybody African American in his leadership,” Davis said of Buttigieg’s first term as mayor.

According to the Buttigieg campaign, 41 percent of its 430 staffers are people of color, Buttigieg has black staffers in senior positions throughout the city government and roughly 40 percent of the people who have worked in his office during his second term are people of color. Buttigieg also created South Bend’s first Office of Diversity and Inclusion in 2016, the campaign said, and commissioned studies on improving the city’s racial wealth gap and the procurement process for female- and minority-owned businesses.

Davis said the mayor didn’t inform him of his plans to run for president or seek his support after he launched.

“When you have four African Americans on the city council, don’t you think that you would take some time to talk to us in town before you lift off? And your problem is with African Americans across the country?” Davis asked, then added that the council has largely been running the show in South Bend while Buttigieg campaigns across the country.

Davis ran for mayor of South Bend this year, but he lost in a crowded primary to Buttigieg-backed James Mueller, who is now mayor-elect of South Bend.

Davis said he watched Wednesday’s Democratic debate expecting Buttigieg to face a lot more tough questions than he did. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii questioned his qualifications to be commander in chief, and African American Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey stressed the importance of Democrats choosing a nominee who can appeal to black voters.

But Buttigieg, who is polling at 0 percent with black voters in Quinnipiac’s latest South Carolina survey, didn’t have to answer for some of his campaign’s recent racial miscues, such as the revelation that some South Carolina black leaders were surprised to see themselves named as supporters of Buttigieg and his Douglass Plan for black America.

“It’s very difficult and very frustrating to talk about a Douglass Plan when he did not perform that while he was the mayor here in town. A Douglass Plan should’ve been implemented in South Bend, Ind.,” Davis said. “He should’ve run on that in the 2011 or at least 2015 campaign, run on it, had success with it, shared it with Indiana, run nationally. I would’ve been the first one to champion that. But to see that he champions it across the country when it wasn’t practiced here has brought me great concern.”

Davis said Buttigieg was missing in action during his failed 2010 run for state treasurer, when Davis and other local leaders were fighting for LGBT rights. And Davis said he has tried to give Buttigieg advice — to no avail — on issues ranging from body cameras for the police department to improving minority contracting to not holding an event on a Sunday at noon because many residents, particularly African Americans, are still in church at that time.

The Buttigieg campaign noted that Buttigieg has outfitted every police offer in the patrol division with body cameras and updated them on patrol cars, and highlighted his support for minority and female entrepreneurs, including a nonprofit partnership to open a training center for small business owners in a predominantly black neighborhood in the city last year.

“If he had followed our advice and had worked with a diverse team of leadership with the police department, with the fire department, with the purchasing, with those kind of things that we have officially written to him … if he had done that with the skills and talent he has already put together, who would be able to beat him?” Davis asked. “That’s the frustration where I stand on that.”

Caitlin Oprysko contributed to this report.