Corrections and clarifications: A previous version of this story misidentified a distinction of Pete Buttigieg’s candidacy. He is the first openly gay Democrat to run for president.

As supporters lined up in the rain to hear Mayor Pete Buttigieg announce he was running for president in South Bend last month, most indicated they were supporting him not because of specific policy viewpoints, but because of who he was.

The millennial’s boom in popularity has largely centered around his biography. His ability to speak multiple languages impressed voters. His experience as a mid-size city mayor and war veteran, instead of as a long-time political mainstay, makes him seem fresh. And his ability to make history — he is the first openly gay Democratic presidential candidate — has helped win him media coverage.

“I like that he is a progressive candidate, but he’s also pragmatic,” said Daniel Roldan, a 36-year-old from Chicago who had driven to South Bend for the announcement. “And he doesn’t let his progressiveness kind of rule. His policies are not what’s really driving him.”

So far, he’s been able to rise in fame without much focus on the specific issues. He answers reporter questions on issues and is articulate, but unlike Sens. Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, he doesn’t have a detailed policy page on his website. Nor does he dive deep on specific issues.

Front page:Pete Buttigieg lands on cover of Time magazine

Pete Buttigieg gave an answer on vaccine exemptions. He changed it after criticism.

Sen. Warren, for example, has rolled out platform points over the course of her campaign and is known for her free college plan. Sen. Cory Booker, meanwhile, has focused on criminal justice and equality issues. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke has a tab on his website solely dedicated to his climate change plan.

Buttigieg's strategy is far different. He has a tool, kept separate from his campaign page, to let people search for videos where he’s talked about specific topics, centered largely around his values.

“It’s very important to me to make sure we’re winning a values argument, too,” Buttigieg told Rachel Maddow when asked about a lack of focus on specific policy.

Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics, said it’s understandable that Buttigieg has continued to focus on his biography as his campaign has heated up, because it’s worked. He’s doing well in most polls.

But eventually that will need to change.

“You can get away with saying ‘We’ll talk more about this later on,’” Downs said. “But at some point during the campaign, if you don’t have stuff out there, it’s easy to label you as somebody who doesn’t have a solid grasp of the issues, and they can say you’re trying to have It both ways.”

Buttigieg’s campaign did not respond to questions about when he would release more detailed policy positions.

That said, Buttigieg has left some some bread crumbs. IndyStar reporters watched dozens of videos on his policy page and others. What follows is what we have culled from those videos on more than a dozen issues:

'Medicare for all'

Buttigieg supports "Medicare for all," but says the best way to get there is using what he's dubbed "medicare for all who want it."

The idea, he said, is to make medicare available on the health care exchanges for Americans to buy into if they choose. Eventually, he argued, that would lead to a single payer system, because Americans would see that medicare plan as the best in terms of cost and coverage.

Abortion

Reproductive health was among the policy issues Buttigieg talked about during his South Bend speech when he announced he was officially running for president earlier this month.

When asked about the Hyde amendment, which prohibits women from using government health insurance to get an abortion and could lead to abortions being outlawed under a "Medicare for all" situation, Buttigieg told an ACLU volunteer in South Carolina that he supported its repeal.

"I think the federal government has become far too much of a pressure against women’s reproductive freedoms, and we need to make sure that even though a lot of these decisions are being made in the states, we’ve got to make sure we have that leadership from the top of the federal government, too," Buttigieg said.

He's been more vague in subsequent interviews.

Electoral College

Buttigieg has indicated he supports the repeal of the Electoral College.

"One person ought to have the same power as any other one person," Buttigieg told a local Iowa news station. "One person, one vote. I don’t know why we would want to twist and distort that, especially when it makes entire states, California on the left to Indiana on the right, basically unable to participate in presidential politics in most electoral cycles."

College affordability

Unlike some of his more liberal opponents such as Sanders and Warren, Buttigieg doesn’t think free college for all would be fair. But he has argued for making it more affordable.

“We need to dramatically buy down the costs of college,” Buttigieg told an Iowa TV station. “Can we buy it down all the way to zero? I think we need to weigh whether that’s a fair thing to do and it would involve asking people who earn less to essentially pay for people who are going to make more because they have college degrees.”

He also is in favor of allowing Americans to refinance student debt and expanding access to the federal student loan forgiveness program.

Marijuana

Buttigieg says the U.S. should be working towards legalizing recreational marijuana, because of all the problems associated with current marijuana policy. This should be more of a personal responsibility issue, he argues.

“You look at rates of incarceration, you look at the racial disparity that is attached to whether somebody is likely to experience incarceration as a consequence of a non-violent drug offense and all of it points us in the same direction,” Buttigieg said during an event in New Hampshire.

Environment

Buttigieg views the Green New Deal as a "very attractive framework" for dealing with climate change, but also said it's more of a "set of goals."

At an event at the University of Chicago, he argued for incentivizing cities to develop in more sustainable ways and working towards personal family energy independence by investing federal money to make solar energy for individual houses cheaper.

"We could get to the point where affordably Uncle Sam could send you a kit," Buttigieg said. "And if you’re a home owner this solar kit means that you’re pretty much self sufficient."

He argued the later point could help lower income families spend less on energy.

Plan to fight 'climate catastrophe': Buttigieg unveils $1.5 trillion plan

In September 2019, Buttigieg unveiled a $1.5 trillion plan to address climate change.

Dubbed the "Clean Energy Victory Plan," it rests on three pillars: building a clean economy with clean energy jobs, investing in resilience and disaster preparedness, and demonstrating leadership on the international stage.

Taxes

Buttigieg says the American dream is becoming more difficult to obtain, with too few people moving from the bottom to top. To change that, he would raise taxes to invest in things such as education and transportation infrastructure to provide opportunities for the poor and the middle class.

He hasn’t released a specific proposal, but Buttigieg argues in videos posted to his website that taxes should be increased on the wealthy. He suggests increasing income taxes on the richest percentage, implanting a financial transactions tax, and closing loopholes that help corporations dodge taxes with overseas accounts.

“Obviously we want to keep taxes low and reasonable, especially for working people struggling to get by and the middle class,” he said in an MSNBC interview, “but we also know that some people in this country are not paying their fair share.”

Equal pay

Buttigieg acknowledges that men often make more than women. In an interview with New York radio WWPR-FM posted to his website, he suggests certain corporations should have to disclose the rates they pay men versus women. He has yet to say which corporations should have to do this.

But, he thinks companies will pay women more fairly if they’re forced to be transparent.

“It’s amazing how far transparency will go to cleaning some of those things up,” he said

Gun control

He would enact what he calls common-sense gun control measures. He thinks Congress is out-of-step with what everyday Americans think about the issue, bending to the will of special interests.

He suggests implementing universal background checks, banning bump stocks and outlawing certain assault-style weapons. He think people on the terrorist watch list should be banned from buying guns. He acknowledges that some people on that list might have been unnecessarily flagged, but he thinks the solution for that is to reform how that list is developed. He thinks people convicted for certain crimes, such as domestic violence, shouldn’t be able to easily acquire guns.

He says he’s struggled to find solutions to violence in South Bend because of Indiana’s unwillingness to allow cities to adopt gun control measures. He often says police officers are out gunned.

“The worst part of my job is dealing with a phone call about somebody being shot,” he told CSPAN2. “In Indiana, it’s not necessarily popular to adopt gun safety polices that I view as common sense."

Campaign finance

Buttigieg hasn’t said what specific legislation he would push in regards to campaign financing. In multiple interviews posted to his website, though, he says the Citizens United Supreme Court case that opened the doors for corporations, nonprofits and unions to contribute to campaigns should be overturned.

He says dollars have begun to out weigh people. He personally has returned money from Washington lobbyists and has sworn off taking money from the fossil fuel industry or certain political action committees.

“Citizens Untied was a disaster for our democracy,” he told CSPAN2.

Foreign policy

As a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, he thinks there should be a higher standard for committing American troops overseas. He’s criticized the threat of sending ground troops to places such as Venezuela or Syria, though he would support targeted military action in Syria and targeted sanctions in Venezuela.

“There has to be a pathway to ending endless war,” he told WMUR9 in New Hampshire.

More broadly, he thinks America is losing credibility overseas and should re-establish itself as a world leader through diplomacy. The current policy of America first, he has said, is leaving America isolated.

He supports investments in cyber security, climate security and elections security.

Immigration

Buttigieg thinks the country needs comprehensive immigration reform, but he hasn’t specifically said everything that will entail. He also casts doubt on whether Congress could come together and enact anything meaningful.

In various interviews posted to his website, he’s suggests the country can accommodate more immigrants and refugees.

He thinks current policy at the southern border, including building the wall and separating families at the southern border is bad policy, doing little to make Americans safer.

“I’m here because of immigration," he said in a Scripps College town hall. "My father immigrated to this country and that’s why I’m here. And most of us, unless we're descended from the first nations have that in our story, either came here or were brought here."

Trump impeachment

This one hasn’t made Buttigieg’s website yet. But in the wake of the Mueller report, the mayor told a crowd at a CNN town hall in New Hampshire that Trump deserves impeachment. The mayor stopped short of demanding that impeachment, noting that decision will be up to the House and Senate.

Buttigieg turned the question to the next election.

“My role in the process is trying to relegate Trumpism to the dustbin of history,” he said, a common refrain at his speeches.

“And I think there is no more decisive way to do that, especially to get Republicans to abandon this deal with the devil they made, than to have just an absolute thumping at the ballot box for what that represents.”

Voting while incarcerated

During one of Sanders' CNN town hall meetings, he said felons should be allowed to vote while they’re incarcerated.

When asked the same question, Buttigieg said they shouldn't be able to vote.

"When you have served your sentence, then part of being restored to society is that you are part of the political life of this nation again and one of the things that needs to be restored is your right to vote," Buttigieg said.

Vaccination

In his most recent response, Buttigieg's campaign said he supports allowing medical exemptions for required vaccinations. But originally he told BuzzFeed News that he supported exemptions for personal and religious reasons, "if states can maintain local herd immunity and there is no public health crisis."

Later the campaign changed its position to only allowing medical exemptions.

In response to questions from IndyStar about why that answer changed, a spokesman said that the initial response “didn't accurately portray his position.”

Call IndyStar Statehouse reporter Kaitlin Lange at 317-432-9270. Follow her on Twitter: @kaitlin_lange.

Call IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at 317-444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich.