The mayor's supporters aren't necessarily the Democratic Party's hardline ideologues who are looking a Medicare for All implosion of the private health insurance industry or getting a taxpayer-funded college debt bailout (two proposals Buttigieg opposes).

As a doctor in GM's white-collar ranks who works inside blue-collar assembly plants, Burton said she likes that Buttigieg hasn't jumped on the bandwagon of Sanders and Warren in calling for replacing employer-sponsored health insurance with a one-size-fits-all Medicare plan.

"That's a pie-in-the-sky idea," Burton said. "It'd be nice that we could do something like that. But the climate of the rest of the people in the United States, they're just not going to buy that."

There are other Buttigieg supporters pulled to him not necessarily because of his policy positions, but his position to provide a vision and leadership for the country.

"More than ever, we need to usher in a new era of leadership," said Colton Dale, 26, who manages community engagement and public relations for the city of Oak Park. In 2016, Dale was a diehard Sanders supporter. But he's moved on, in part because of Sanders' age (77) and Buttigieg's message on climate change that emphasizes it a local rather than global problem.

Cornell Gunn-McGee, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant from Detroit, is looking for a "healer-in-chief."

Gunn-McGee, who is African American, thought Buttigieg's answers on calming racial divisions in South Bend were "soft."

"I think he could have done better," he said.

But Gunn-McGee's husband, Christian Gunn-McGee, was more firmly behind Buttigieg because he's not a "safety" pick for Democrats like Biden, a natural party standard bearer with 44 years of Washington experience (and who is backed by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan).

"Safety doesn't get African Americans energized," said Christian Gunn-McGee, a manager at Delta.

Buttigieg seems unconcerned about getting defined by President Donald Trump or his Republican allies — and his supporters like that, too.

"It's true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists," Buttigieg said Tuesday. "If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they're going to do? They're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. So let's just stand up for the right policy, go out there and defend it."

Going out and defending a policy vision is what executives in corporate America — or a mayor's office — do every day.

Buttigieg's supporters believe his leadership vision will outlast the intraparty battle over who has the most to offer voters in contrast to Trump's policies and record.

"Being mayor gives you that hands-on, grassroots experience that you need," Burton said. "Because this country is changing, this country is dealing with issues and it needs someone who is flexible and can adapt and adjust to this ever-changing world that we're in."