Buttigieg's goal is to be the second choice for as many Perez and Ellison supporters as possible. But his diagnosis of what went wrong in 2016 sounds a lot like Perez's. "We spent so much time talking about the politicians, like that's what really matters," he said. "I was guilty of it. I had a button when we were campaigning for Hillary . . . that said 'I'm with her.' It was all about her. Then when we realized who the opponent was going to be, it was all about him. We said, 'I'm against him because he is terrible.' He is terrible. But the people at home were saying, 'Who is talking to me? Who is talking about me?' Everything we talk about has to be explained in terms of how it directly touches people's actual lives."