“I’ve known Pete Buttigieg for many years, he has been a terrific mayor," Martin O'Malley said of South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. | Getty O'Malley backs Buttigieg in DNC chair race

Former Maryland governor and 2016 presidential candidate Martin O'Malley is endorsing South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship, just days ahead of the candidate forum in Baltimore, where he served as mayor.

“I’ve known Pete Buttigieg for many years, he has been a terrific mayor. He’s one of those new, up-and-coming leaders in our country and in our party that’s really bringing forward a new and better way of governing,” O’Malley — who himself briefly considered a run for the chairmanship before bowing out in November — told POLITICO. “He speaks with a clarity that our party really, really needs right now. He has been successful in a so-called red state, he brings to the public service of being mayor the background of having served in our armed forces.”


“He is of a new generation of leadership. Our party sometimes talks about bringing forward a new generation of leadership, well, hey man, there’s never been a better time,” added O’Malley, referring to the 35-year-old veteran of the war in Afghanistan.

The endorsement represents Buttigieg’s most prominent nod so far as he faces off against a field of favored candidates that includes Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez — and it’s a clear snub of Perez, a Marylander whom O’Malley appointed to be the state's secretary of labor in 2007.

Buttigieg, who also has the backing of another influential Maryland member in the party — former state chair Susan Turnbull — jumped into the race later than his rivals, but he has caught the attention of DNC members at recent candidate events.

Ellison has the backing of prominent Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, while Perez is supported by a handful of former Barack Obama administration officials like former Vice President Joe Biden and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

In a race that is often compared to a proxy war between Sanders and Hillary Clinton supporters, however, Buttigieg — much as O’Malley tried to do — is aiming to present himself as a third option, the best one to take on Donald Trump.

“It shouldn’t be about what faction of the losing party you were in in this last election,” said O’Malley, who left the presidential race after the Iowa caucuses. “Who cares?"

O’Malley noted Buttigieg’s role in a state that went to Trump by 19 points in November, painting him as the right choice to counter the president.

“The way we overcome the Trumpism and the all of the threats that the Trump administration presents to our Constitution, our freedom, our economy, our values, and our role in the world is by going large-minded,” he said. “Pete Buttigieg speaks with a clarity of message that gets people’s attention, and his ability to do that in a red state? Well, we didn’t lose the last election because we lost the dinner party circuit inside the Beltway."

The DNC chair race — which also includes New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley, South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jaime Harrison, Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Sally Boynton Brown, and TV commentator Jehmu Greene — will be decided in a vote in Atlanta at the end of February.

