The DNC chairmanship is occupied. But the role is hardly filled.

Missing is a dynamic, well-organized and respected political strategist. The country’s oldest party committee needs such a leader, especially in the time of President Trump.

The claim to fame of the current lackluster chairman, Tom Perez, is the Iowa caucuses debacle and controversial rules that helped reduce the most diverse Democratic presidential field ever to an all-white tier of contenders. Perez also engineered rule changes that benefited the late-to-the-party candidacy of billionaire Mike Bloomberg. Meanwhile, two leaders of the Milwaukee host committee for the Democratic National Convention in July were recently fired amid allegations they had created a toxic work environment that included “bullying and workplace harassment.”

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Buttigieg is the person for this job.

He ran for it in 2017 as the 34-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind. Back then, Buttigieg was a late entrant in the contest between Perez, who was President Barack Obama’s labor secretary and an early Hillary Clinton supporter, and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who had been one of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) most outspoken surrogates. Ideological crevices and hard feelings from the 2016 primary lingered, and Buttigieg stepped forward as an alternative to re-litigating that fight through proxies.

“Look, no one sits on his mother’s knee and says, ‘I want to be national party chair when I grow up,’” Buttigieg said when tossing his hat in the ring. “But I can’t think of something more meaningful than organizing the opposition in the face of what I think will be a pretty monstrous presidency and challenging time out here in the states.” He was right about that.

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Although Buttigieg got in too late to build the necessary support, his candidacy drew strong backing from unexpected places. Former DNC chairman Howard Dean endorsed the young mayor. “Our leadership is old and creaky, including me,” Dean said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “We’ve got to have this guy . . . running this party.”

Former Obama strategist David Axelrod called Buttigieg “one of the most talented young leaders in the Democratic Party” and noted that “he comes from the middle of the country, where the party needs to be strengthened.”

David Wilhelm, a former DNC chair who had also been Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign manager, said of Buttigieg, “We need someone who can unify us, who can focus on the grass roots, whose experience is outside Washington, and who represents the next generation of party leadership that will lead us to victories at the national and local level.”

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Wilhelm said, “I am proud to lend my name to his growing list of supporters.”

Joe Andrew, who led the DNC in the late 1990s, also threw his weight behind Buttigieg. “It’s telling that Pete is the only candidate in this race who has the support of two people who have actually run the party.”

Andrew’s argument for Buttigieg in 2017 is also the case for Buttigieg now. “The DNC chair,” Andrew said, “needs to be the leader of all of the party, not one faction or another . . . [which] does the party a disservice.”

Buttigieg’s presidential campaign aimed to overcome intraparty factionalism and a takeover by an ideologically driven candidate who exploits generational and economic class fissures. He sought to rise above fierce and lingering internecine wars in Washington and to focus the party’s attention on people outside the Beltway who feel overlooked and scorned.

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The party chairman’s job is to put together a strategy and infrastructure that enable Democrats not to tear down and radicalize the system but win elections.

Buttigieg’s intelligence, adroitness and ground-level experience could make that happen.

And, at this stage, he could still get in the game. There is precedent. Ed Rendell and Andrew co-chaired the party from 1999 to 2001, with Rendell dubbed the general chairman and Andrew national chairman. If they know what’s good for them, national committee members should carve out one of those roles for Buttigieg and let him get to work on the strategy and mechanics of electing a Democrat to the White House.

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Doing this wouldn’t rule out a Buttigieg presidency.

George H.W. Bush was Republican National Committee chairman in 1973 and went on to be elected president in 1988.

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Bob Dole was RNC chair from 1971 to 1973 and the Republican presidential nominee in 1996.

Democratic Party leaders, don’t let Pete Buttigieg hang up his spurs. Not now, when he’s needed most.