Pete Buttigieg is this week’s breakout star of the 2020 Democratic primary. The mayor of South Bend, Indiana has won fans from across the political spectrum due to his quick wit, his seeming post-partisanship, and his appreciation of some very fat books. His willingness to spar with the religious right has made him, in short order, arguably the most prominent openly gay politician in the country. And then there is his youth. At 37 years old, Buttigieg is roughly half the age of Donald Trump, and represents a generational break from party stalwarts like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

In the end, however, Buttigieg’s own presidential case might rest less on his charisma or solid millennial status, and more on his experience in office. And that office is mayor of a midwest city of 102,000 people. “Look, you could be a senior senator and have never managed more than a hundred people in your life,” he told voters in New Hampshire last month. “I not only have more years of government experience than the president of the United States, but I have more years of executive experience than the vice president of the United States, and more wartime experience than anybody who arrived in the office since George H.W. Bush.”



While rivals like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren talk about the policies they would push through the federal government if elected, Buttigieg keeps pointing to the small city he has led since 2011. “We propelled our city’s comeback by taking our eyes off the rearview mirror, being honest about change, and insisting on a better future,” he said, walking through an old factory that has been converted into a technological hub, in a Twitter video teasing the presidential announcement he is expected to make on Sunday.

I launched a presidential exploratory committee because it is a season for boldness and it is time to focus on the future. Are you ready to walk away from the politics of the past?



Join the team at https://t.co/Xlqn10brgH. pic.twitter.com/K6aeOeVrO7 — Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) January 23, 2019

A survey of the achievements Buttigieg touts on the campaign trail and in his recently published memoir, Shortest Way Home, show a young, data-obsessed mayor eager to transform South Bend from a dying Rust Belt hulk obsessed with its past into a beacon of the “Silicon Prairie.” South Bend did transform under Buttigieg’s leadership, thanks in part to his data-heavy approach, though perhaps not to the extent that it is sometimes portrayed.

A 2011 Newsweek article, “America’s Dying Cities,” is the gracenote to Buttigieg’s political career. That story, published shortly after Buttigieg lost in his first run for public office (Indiana state treasurer), placed South Bend as eighth, in an awkwardly conceived list of dying cities. “What is particularly troubling for this small city is that the number of young people declined by 2.5% during the previous decade, casting further doubt on whether this city will ever be able to recover,” the authors wrote. For Buttigieg, it was a call to arms. A week later, he announced his candidacy for mayor.

