In 2020, Joe Biden committed himself to selecting a woman as his running mate and for some reason landed on Kamala Harris. I've never believed he wanted to pick her, though there is perhaps some merit to the theory that in selecting her, Biden had the ultimate insurance policy against the 25th Amendment being invoked against him. Early on, though, there were signs that Joe Biden really saw Pete Buttigieg as the future of the Democratic Party.
Biden wasted little time promising Mayor Pete a job in his administration after he dropped out of the 2020 Democratic primary. Biden's interest in Buttigieg was clear, and not long after Biden took office, there were reports suggesting that Biden's team had been grooming Buttigieg as a potential successor instead of Kamala Harris. Politico, in 2021, noted that Buttigieg's name was frequently mentioned by aides as a natural choice for the Democratic presidential nominee in either 2028 or even 2024, had Biden opted not to seek reelection.
However, it looks like Democrat hopes to make Pete Buttigieg the first LGBTQ president in American history have been shattered because Buttigieg revealed on Sunday that he's not sure if he'll seek elected office again.
"Well, I certainly have a new perspective on just how demanding that job is, watching President Biden deal with so many concerns, challenges, and opportunities for this country," he said when asked about his presidential ambitions on CBS's "Face The Nation."
"I am proud to be a small part of the big team that helps him get that done,” he added. "I sincerely don’t know whether I will run for elected office of any kind again.”
Pete Buttigieg: "I sincerely don't know whether I will run for elected office of any kind again." pic.twitter.com/U3V2PtGpRF
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) March 31, 2024
Seeking high office again would be a significant challenge for Buttigieg. Hailing from Indiana, a red state, it is unlikely that he'd be able to win a statewide election, which would mean that in the next presidential election cycle, he'd be four years without being in an elected office, which is a weak position to mount another presidential campaign.
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But perhaps his bigger problem is that his tenure as Transportation secretary has been plagued by incompetence and scandal. More often than not, the U.S. Transportation secretary isn't someone who garners much attention, but Buttigieg certainly did many times, and for bad reasons. He made the controversial decision to take paternity leave during the supply chain crisis, and made himself a laughing stock by promising to invest $1 billion to make racist American highways more equitable.
Additionally, his frequent personal travels, coupled with mishaps such as the Southwest Airlines fiasco, the FAA outage, and the Chinese spy balloon incident, further tarnished his reputation. Particularly damning was his handling of the environmental crisis following the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. His tenure seemed to be defined by transportation-related disasters, the most recent being the cargo ship crash that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland.
It sure looks like Buttigieg's presidential ambitions have indeed been derailed by his tenure in the Biden administration.
