Pete Buttigieg, South Bend, Indiana’s 37-year-old mayor, made history when he announced on January 23 that he was adding his name to the list of Democratic candidates for the 2020 presidential race. If he won the nomination, Buttigieg would not only be the first millennial to run for president but also the first openly gay man to run.

"I’m very mindful of the historic nature of seeking to be the first out and openly gay major nominee ever," Buttigieg tells Teen Vogue. "The most important thing is that people know I’m proud of who I am. I’m proud of my marriage to my husband. Hopefully, if nothing else, this makes it a little easier for the next person who comes along."

Proudly just being himself in politics is something that’s especially significant for Buttigieg, because it is something he did not think he’d ever be able to do. “Frankly, as recently as the beginning of this decade, when I first ran for office, my understanding was that you could either be out, or you could be in elected politics, but you could not be both,” he says. “And it’s just beautiful to know that’s changing, and how much that’s changing we’ll begin to find out.”

Buttigieg became mayor of his hometown of South Bend at 29, after graduating from Harvard University, studying as a Rhodes Scholar, and working at McKinsey. At the time, he was not public about his sexual orientation. During his mayoral reelection campaign, in 2015, Buttigieg tells Teen Vogue he reached a point where he realized that he needed to publicly come out as a gay man, not only for himself but for the LGBTQ community.

So, he wrote an essay, “Why Coming Out Matters”, for his local newspaper, the South Bend Tribune.

“For a local student struggling with her sexuality, it might be helpful for an openly gay mayor to send the message that her community will always have a place for her,” he wrote.

At the time of his writing the essay, in June 2015, Buttigieg says he had no idea what the political consequences would be. “It was in the middle of a re-election campaign, and Mike Pence [now vice president] was the governor of Indiana at the time, so it was definitely not obvious that this was a safe thing to do,” he says, referring to Pence’s anti-LGBTQ record. “But, it was obvious that I had to do it. So, it was one of those moments where you let politics fall however they may.”

Buttigieg wound up being re-elected five months later, with 80% of the vote.

Should Buttigieg be elected president in 2020, he would also make history as being the youngest president ever, at 39. The current president is 72, and current 2020 Democratic front-runners like Senator Bernie Sanders (though he has yet to announce) and former Vice President Joe Biden are 77 and 76, respectively, so Buttigieg says his being a millennial gives him a different political perspective.

“I’ve seen a lot of decisions made, from taxes to climate change, where the only way you can explain it is the people who decided think it’s going to be someone else’s problem,” he says. “That someone else is us.”

He points out how many members of his generation served in the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Buttigieg himself is an Afghanistan veteran, having served a tour as an officer with the Navy Reserve.

“When your life is put on the line by an elected official, that shows the core of why politics matter,” he said. “Those decisions affect our lives. I’ve experienced that as someone who has benefitted from marriage equality, and I’ve experienced that as someone who served in uniform.”