Of the top contenders for the White House, Pete Buttigieg has had perhaps the smallest campaign operation in Texas.

While other campaigns have been opening offices, hiring staff, and visiting Texas regularly, Buttigieg drilled down on other early voting states in need of a breakthrough in Iowa or New Hampshire to get his campaign rolling. And polling has shown it’s starting to work as he has vaulted into the lead in some early polls in Iowa. While the former South Bend Indiana Mayor still hasn’t invested a ton of resources in the Lone Star State, he kicked off a 3-day run through Texas on Monday night with a fundraiser in Houston.

The 37-year-old Democrat told several dozen people at a private home in The Heights that he sees Texas as critical to the presidential primary. “It’s never been more important for us to be organizing our friends and allies here knowing that the race is unpredictable,” he said.

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With just 43 days until early voting, Buttigieg told the crowd the nation needs the next president to be a unifier and warned that whoever it is will possibly face and even more divided nation.

“We’re going to need a president that prioritizes unifying the American people and bringing us together,” Buttigieg said.

More Information Texas Presidential Primary Feb. 3 — Deadline for voters to be registered in order to vote in the election. Feb. 18 — First day of early voting March 3 — Election day

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Besides serving two terms as a mayor, Buttigieg is a former intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve and was a formerly a consultant for McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm based in New York City.

Buttigieg has presented himself as a centrist compared to other more progressive candidates in the field. He has opposed Medicare for All programs, calls his current health care proposal “Medicare for all who want it” and has moved toward the center on issues including gun control when he opposed Beto O’Rourke proposal for a mandatory gun buyback of AR-15s and AK-47s.

Buttigieg said his Medicare-for-all-who-want-it is a better way to make sure all Americans have health insurance.

“We take a version of Medicare and make it available for anyone who wants to participate, but in the name of freedom, we’re going to trust you about whether you want it,” he said.

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Buttigieg appeared to be the longest of longshot candidates when he first jumped into the presidential race in early 2019.

During his stop in Houston he acknowledged seeing some people in the crowd who were with him when his chances seemed “somewhere between improbable and preposterous.”

But over the last two months, Buttigieg has surged in both fundraising and in polling in the early states.

Two consecutive Iowa polls have shown Buttigieg in first place or tied for first place in Iowa. And his campaign announced last week it had raised $24.7 million in the final three months of 2019. That was a better fundraising run than anyone in the Democratic field except for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who raised almost $35 million during that same period.

Buttigieg has now raised a total of $76 million.

While Buttigieg is doing well in Iowa, he has not moved voters in Texas so far. Early polling before Texas votes on March 3 shows Buttigieg well behind Vice President Joe Biden. The last Texas poll, released in early December by CNN, showed Buttigieg with the support of 9 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, compared to 35 percent for Biden.

His fundraising run \comes as other top contenders drill down on Texas, which holds its presidential primary on Super Tuesday on March 3 along with 13 other states.

Last weekend Mike Bloomberg campaigned in Fort Bend County, upped his Houston television buy to $4 million, and named Ashlea Turner, who worked on then-Houston Mayor Bill White’s 2010 campaign for governor, as state director of his presidential bid.

Biden was in San Antonio just last month for a campaign rally and fundraiser, and is planning to be back in Texas next week for more events. He previously hired Dallas-based Democratic strategist Jane Hamilton to be his Texas state director.

Warren opened a pair of campaign offices in Austin and San Antonio last month and has plans to open more offices in Dallas and Houston, according to her staff. She hired veteran San Antonio Democratic activist Jenn Longoria to be her Texas state director and has brought on two dozen senior staffers and organizers.

Sanders has hired Houston’s Chris Chu de León, a former political adviser on O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, to be his Texas field director. Sanders’ campaign has also trained up more than 1,000 volunteers who are already phone banking and canvassing voters ahead of the March 3 primary.

Buttigieg has no campaign offices in Texas and has largely relied on his friendship with Austin Mayor Steve Adler to help him navigate Texas.