Editorial Board

El Paso Times

Editor's note: Pete Buttigieg suspended his presidential campaign on March 1.

This is an editorial: An editorial, like news reporting, is based on objective facts, but shares an opinion. The conclusions and opinions here have been derived by our Editorial Board and are not associated with the news staff.

The surviving Democratic candidates for president offer voters a contrast in ideology, age, gender, sexual orientation and the life experiences that shaped them. They are proof in the flesh that diversity is more than skin deep despite the exit of every candidate of color before Texans had an opportunity to choose.

Democratic voters need someone they can trust to do two things — represent their values and defeat President Donald Trump. You aren't alone if you've felt pressured to choose electability over principle.

The logical, unifying choice for the 2020 election

For us, both conscience and strategic calculation led to Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, as the best candidate to lead this country to a better future, where the focus is again on finding common ground and uniting Americans.

Buttigieg is a veteran, well-educated and not a millionaire or billionaire. He has served as a mayor, so he has worked closest to the issues that seem to beat down American families. Buttigieg also is multilingual (including Spanish) and so well-read that he is wise beyond his years.

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He is a good listener. Most of all he is a consensus-builder, a practitioner of the politics of inclusion.

Why did we choose this Democratic presidential candidate?

This also is how Buttigieg differs most from Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders, whose far-left rhetoric and combative personality suggest little room for compromise.

If you like Sanders because of his uncompromising commitment to free health care and higher education for everyone, you're more likely to get at least some of what you want from a President Buttigieg who can seek and win compromise. There's just something about his professional-facilitator demeanor that suggests he's the one who could move the needle on an issue as fractious to the nation and as emotional to the Texans of El Paso, Midland-Odessa, Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs as universal background checks, banning bump stocks and finding ways to disarm people who are a threat to themselves or others.

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His chief-executive experience as a mayor recommends him over Sanders' long experience as a senatorial outsider. While Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar have vast, valuable legislative experience that Buttigieg can't match, only Mike Bloomberg bests him in experience as an elected executive.

While we like Klobuchar for her desire to unite the country and her successes in Congress, her campaign seems to continue to struggle. Honestly, we wonder if any of the senators running for president can suddenly address the problems this country faces. They have had their chance with limited successes along the way.

At 38, Buttigieg also would break an age barrier as the youngest president ever. Buttigieg's generation has been shaped by 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, mass shootings, rising student debt, the decline in manufacturing and worries about the environment.

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He is calling for reforms in immigration laws and wants to take a more measured approach to dealing with concerns about global warming. Buttigieg also is promising to provide more government transparency and expand health care to all without forcing people to give up their private insurance plans.

He also will work to reduce the federal deficit, which is again threatening the future of our country. The deficit matters no matter who is in power in the White House and Congress. As a naval intelligence officer, he knows the value of a well-trained, well-funded military to protect our national security. He will do more to make sure our veterans are treated well.

Buttigieg has packed a lot of life into 38 years. On a debate stage so far, he has shown the compassion, demeanor and the next-generation politics to be president.