Advertisement Buttigieg national service plan prompts endorsement by Rep. Matt Wilhelm Manchester community service activist is campaign's first announced NH endorsement Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Citing Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s recently released national service plan, state Rep. Matthew Wilhelm of Manchester on Tuesday endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate, becoming Buttigieg’s first publicly announced endorsement in the Granite State.Wilhelm said that as a two-term City Year AmeriCorps veteran and a state service commissioner with Volunteer NH, “I was particularly inspired by Mayor Pete’s commitment to building out regional service ecosystems and empowering our local leaders to create and expand service year positions to address New Hampshire-specific challenges like affordable housing, the opioid and mental health crises, and educational inequity.”Wilhelm, who was elected to the New Hampshire House in 2018, added, “In making national service a policy priority, Mayor Pete has shown that he takes seriously the responsibility of unleashing the power and potential of our country’s most valuable natural resource -- its people. I’m committed to doing everything I can over the next seven months to help Mayor Pete win not only our first-in-the-nation presidential primary, but to win the era. The future of our democracy depends on it.”Wilhelm has been a resident of Manchester since 2005, when he led a team of City Year AmeriCorps member in serving “high-need public schools,” the Buttigieg campaign said.The campaign said Wilhelm is also “helping to develop two new civilian national service programs: Granite Service Scholars, which aims to build intergenerational relationships between students and seniors aging in place; and Concert Corps, which leverages the power of live music to create positive social and environmental impact through service.”Wilhelm received his master’s degree in public administration at the University of New Hampshire Carsey School of Public Policy and is a member of the boards of Girls at Work, Inc. and Volunteer NH, the state commission for community service. He will assist the Buttigieg’s campaign outreach in his House district and in the state service community and will “advise the campaign on public policy issues in the Granite State,” the campaign said.He is the second state legislator to back Buttigieg, although he’s the first endorsement announced by the Buttigieg campaign. State Rep. Cole Riel was a supporter of Buttigieg before being hired in May as a senior staffer on the New Hampshire campaign.Buttigieg’s national service plan, titled “A New Call to Service” and released last week by the South Bend, Indiana, mayor in first-caucus state Iowa, would increase national service opportunities to 250,000 positions through existing federal and AmeriCorps organizations that receive federal grants.Buttigieg has a goal of increasing service opportunities to 1 million by 2026. He would achieve those goals by targeting high school, community college and vocational school students, as well as students of historically black colleges and universities and “minority-serving institution” and people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither in school nor working. Buttigieg also proposes developing entirely new service corps, including a Climate Corps, Community Health Corps and an Intergenerational Service Corps, which would be overseen by a new chief service officer in the White House with standing on the National Security Council and Domestic Policy Council.Buttigieg's campaign has not given a cost estimate of the plan.Buttigieg, 37, a military veteran who served in Afghanistan, says in his plan, “Our intention is for this proposal to create a pathway towards a universal, national expectation of service for all 4 million high school graduates every year, such that the first question asked of every college freshman or new hire is: ‘Where did you serve?’”Buttigieg is scheduled to make his eighth campaign visit to New Hampshire on Friday and is expected to further discuss his plan. He is scheduled to attend at an early morning house party with Rye Democrats, followed by a “Meet Pete” event at the Rotary Arts Pavilion in Dover at 9:30 a.m.Buttigieg will tour downtown Rochester at 12 p.m. with City Councilor Jeremy Hutchinson and attend a house party in Laconia, hosted by city Democratic chair Carlos Cardona, at 1:15 p.m.Also this week, 2016 District 3 Executive Council candidate and Kensington Selectman Joe Pace said he is supporting Buttigieg.