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South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg had a packed Showbox Theater rocking Tuesday night, making a big hit as he brought an improbable presidential campaign to the home state of a fellow Democratic hopeful.

He outdrew, by a lot, Gov. Jay Inslee's candidate announcement in March.

Buttigieg found a target in Republicans' political theocracy, in which GOP conservatives have proclaimed themselves home to the "Values Voter" and defenders of "religious liberty" often defined as the right to discriminate.

Of what the country stands for, Bittigieg said, "They are not conservative values, they are American values," he argued. "They have progressive implications when taken seriously . . . We are going to break the spell that values is conservative."

The mayor, who is Episcopalian and gay and happily married -- husband Chasten joined him on stage -- took on the religious right.

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"By the way, God does not belong to a political party," Buttigieg said, referencing the St. Matthew Gospel on obligations to the poor, and noting the Trump administration has just proposed to kick 3 million Americans off food stamps.

"You have a choice if you are faithful and it is not the person in the White House right now," he added.

The low-budget Buttigieg fundraiser drew 1,100 people to the city's newest historical landmark. The media were allowed to attend, even given a scrum afterward to ask questions.

So far, aside from Gov. Jay Inslee's March 1 announcement, the Democratic presidential field has used Washington as an ATM. Ex-Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock have come almost furtively and kept private company with donors.

The Buttigieg event featured a 37-year-old millennial, former Rhodes Scholar and Afghanistan War veteran, and offspring of professors at Notre Dame. Mayor Pete was elected at 29 as mayor in South Bend. "He is tired of waiting for the generations who created today's problems," said King County Democratic Chair Shasti Conrad, the warmup act.

Buttigieg took the message a little more directly to Biden, who has been in politics for 47 years since first elected to the Senate in 1972. "What's not going to work is a return to normal," Buttigieg said.

The mayor did traipse through familiar Democratic issues. He would "ban weapons of war being on the streets of our cities," confront "violent white nationalism that is killing people," and appoint judges "who get it" -- presumably on abortion rights.

"We need a Secretary of Education who actually believes in public education," Buttigieg said to cheers. Billionaire U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, champion of charter schools and defender of for profit colleges, has become a bigtime Democratic villain.

In response to questions, he talked briefly of his Douglass Plan, in which Buttigieg pledges to "dismantle" a criminal justice system he describes as racist, and argued that as a big city mayor he has been on the front lines of racial issues.

He talked very little, however, about regaining allegiance of white working class voters, a bedrock of Democratic support for 75 years but now the heart of President Trump's political base.

The states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- and Rust Belt industrial centers -- put Trump in the White House three years ago.

RELATED: A $3 million haul: Inslee leads fellow Democratic second-tier candidates

What to make of Mayor Pete?

He raised a phenomenal $24.8 million in the second quarter. He has appealed to constituencies very much represented in the Pacific Northwest -- a big, vigorous LGBTQ community, the technology class, and a surprising number of early Obama backers. The Showbox event was followed by a pricier lakeside fundraiser with tickets starting at $500.

Washington has moved up its 2020 primary to March, and Democrats will actually use the results to allocate national convention delegates.

We count. Will Mayor Pete by the time Washington rolls around?

He is running in fifth place behind the big four in the Democratic race -- Biden, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders. He has, however, eclipsed the rest of the field, particularly the once-promising candidacy of Beto O'Rourke.

He was a tonic last night for Democrats wanting a close up look at their candidates, rousing the faithful and connecting as Bill Clinton once did on Seattle visits.

"I might come here more often," he said. He has fans here, and donors.