When Pete Buttigieg decided to run for president, he wasn't just betting on his résumé. He was betting on the country's readiness to accept something it has never had: an openly gay commander in chief. Now personally, I think he ruined his shot at the presidency by being a horrifically incompetent Transportation Secretary. That said, it raises an interesting question worth discussing.
During an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker asked Buttigieg about his blatantly obvious presidential ambitions. She asked him directly whether America was truly ready to elect a gay president, bringing up what Kamala Harris’s ghostwriter wrote in her memoir.
“I do want to talk a bit about your political future, Mr. Secretary,” Welker began. “Former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote in her book about the 2024 election that you came close to being her running mate. Let me remind people of this passage. She writes of the eight names on the list for vetting. ‘I might as well say that Pete Buttigieg was my first choice. He would have been an ideal partner if I were a straight white man. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.’ She was essentially saying that she didn’t think America was ready for a gay vice president with a black woman at the top of the ticket. Let me ask you today, do you think America is ready for a gay president?”
As you might expect, Buttigieg didn't hedge.
"I wouldn't have run for president in the first place if I didn't believe that," he insisted. "Of course."
And then he kept talking.
"My experience in South Bend, Indiana, getting re-elected with 80% of the vote after coming out, and my experience right now traveling the country shows me that what's really on people's minds isn't about you, your identity as a candidate," he continued. "It's about them. It's about their lives."
Welker then asked him whether he'd commit to running in 2028, even though it is pretty obvious he’s planning to run. "I don't think now is the time to even be talking about that," he said. "I think by my count, we've been to 35 states since I left the cabinet."
NEW: Democrat Pete Buttigieg says America is ready for a gay president. https://t.co/tfdEogpXKW
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 14, 2026
He happened to be in New Mexico at the time, a state that falls on the early presidential primary calendar — some coincidence.
Recommended: What This Clancy Juror Admitted to Is the Worst Revelation Yet
Buttigieg clearly understands what Kamala's calculus proved. A gay identity is an asset inside today's Democrat base. Why? Because Democrats thrive on identity politics, and every national ticket for twenty years has carried some kind of "historic first" as a gimmick. In 2008, it was that Barack Obama would have been the first black man elected president. In 2016, Hillary Clinton would have been the first woman elected president. In 2020, Kamala became the first female vice president. In 2024, she would have been the first female president.
At this rate, every Democrat ticket going forward will feature a woman or a minority somewhere on it.
So the identity-politics box has been checked plenty of times already. The open question is whether America will check the one Buttigieg is banking on: an openly gay man in the Oval Office.
I'm not sold that it will. Yes, America's views on same-sex marriage and homosexuality have shifted dramatically over the last 30 years, and Buttigieg himself doesn't scare anyone. He was a lousy transportation secretary, but he comes across as a normal guy. The trouble starts once you get past the B in LGBTQ+ and into the T and the Q and whatever the plus is, and recent polling shows Americans swinging against mutilation of children, the unfairness of letting biological men compete in women's sports, and all that nonsense about there being more than two genders.
Buttigieg didn't build that brand, but guess what? He's stuck carrying it. And until voters stop associating the TQ+ with the LGB, a gay president isn't happening, no matter how many states he visits or how normal he seems.
