Some believe the Democratic Party’s next savior is living here, huddled with family, in the relative obscurity of a small city on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Pete Buttigieg has yet to decide if that’s a responsibility he wants.
For now, Buttigieg, the 43-year-old former U.S. transportation secretary, is discussing his future with party officials, labor leaders and top strategists. He must decide soon whether he wants to return to the national spotlight as a candidate in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race or step aside to instead seek a much bigger role as his party’s next presidential nominee.
Prominent allies believe Buttigieg cannot feasibly do both, even as others raise the comparison to Barack Obama, who was elected president just four years after becoming a U.S. senator.
“I don’t think you can run for Senate in 2026 and run for president in 2028 … I would think that would be very, very hard,” said Obama’s former chief strategist David Axelrod, who met briefly with Buttigieg last week ahead of a joint appearance at the University of Chicago.
The Democratic Party may be hurting more at this moment than it was two decades ago, when voters turned to that first-term senator from Illinois over more established candidates to lead their comeback from the Bush years. Indeed, Democrats, demoralized and afraid, are crying out for strong new leadership with President Donald Trump and his allies, notably Elon Musk, racing to transform Washington while gutting key federal agencies.
Buttigieg has the tools to lead his party on a national scale if he wants. More than four years after the little-known mayor outperformed far more experienced Democrats in the Iowa presidential caucuses, he remains one of the party’s best communicators, boasting a massive social media following, a national donor network and a Midwestern charm he displays in Fox News Channel interviews and smaller settings alike.
More than anything, allies say, Buttigieg’s decision will be guided by the impact on his young family at a difficult cultural moment in Trump’s America. The Republican president has targeted LGBTQ+ initiatives and inclusion programs. Buttigieg is the openly gay father of 3-year-old twins.
Axelrod complimented Buttigieg as “one of the most talented people in the party.”
“He would be a frontline candidate in any race that he ran,” Axelrod said.
Buttigieg has lowered his profile since leaving the Biden administration last month.
He hasn’t done any media interviews. He declined to speak to The Associated Press for this story. And he has challenged Trump only with a handful of social media posts, notably pushing back on the Republican president’s blaming of diversity hiring for the deadly midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
But based on the response, Democrats like what he has to say. His posts on X frequently garner millions of views. And just over a week after joining the newer social media platform Bluesky, he has quickly become one of its most-followed Democrats.
Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has been a more visible presence around his new home of Traverse City, a lakeside resort town that calls itself “the Cherry Capital of the World.” His husband, Chasten Buttigieg, grew up in Traverse City.
“Chasten actually was a speaker at our last Obama dinner; he sat at my table,” said Lauren Flynn, a local county commissioner. “I always get text messages from folks saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, I saw Pete shopping downtown or running by the bay.’”
It’s much the same at the local coffee shop, Higher Grounds Trading Co., which features a pride flag out front and progressive messages on the walls. One barista described the shop as a low-profile spot where most customers don’t disturb the town’s highest-profile resident.
“He’s been coming in more frequently,” barista Sydney Hall said recently, noting she’d served Buttigieg and his husband earlier that day.
The coffee shop may be a welcoming environment, but some warn of safety concerns for members of the LGBTQ+ community and other prominent Democrats in the current political environment.
Aaron Wright, president of the Traverse City-based Up North Pride, praised Buttigieg and his family for “sacrificing their physical safety for the betterment of their local area, the state and society.” He noted Traverse City is just 20 minutes from where members of a local militia plotted to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
“That’s the No. 1 thing that I would imagine they’re considering is the physical safety of being where they are, as the people that they are, because people are drinking out of the firehose of misinformation and disinformation,” Wright said. “Malignant groups that want to see people like me suffer.”
Wright’s husband, Trenton Lee, chair of the local Democratic Party, said his political opponents in local campaigns often focus on his sexuality rather than policies.
“Pete offers that challenge to the other side, where if you took out his sexual orientation, the way he’s able to articulate issues and then actually work on them, he’s a shoo-in for whatever he runs for,” Lee said. “It forces them to be like, ‘The only issue I have is that he’s gay.’”
Buttigieg is already facing allegations from some critics that he moved to the state solely to help his political career.
“It’s not just that he carpet-bagged to Michigan a few years ago after being the mayor of South Bend. It’s that he did it in the most unrelatable enclave in the entire state,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the state party.
Traverse City, Roe said, is an “elite bubble” that only “underscores an elitism that was one of the problems in the Democratic Party.” Roe added that he’ll be surprised if Buttigieg enters the race, “because if he runs and loses, he could be done.”
There may be no better staging ground for an ambitious Democrat in 2025 than Michigan.
Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ unexpected retirement created a rare Senate vacancy ahead of next year’s midterms. A Republican hasn’t been elected to the U.S. Senate in Michigan this century, although Mike Rogers came within less than 1 percentage point last fall and is planning to run again.
Michigan also offers a home state advantage to any prospective presidential candidate in 2028. The state is expected to host one of the nation’s opening presidential primaries. And in the general election, Michigan will be a premier swing state.
Buttigieg is leaning on powerful allies to help make his decision.
Longtime Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who retired in January and considers Buttigieg a close friend, attended his twins’ birthday party and visited him at home recently. She said she doesn’t expect to endorse in the Senate primary, but she told him directly he’d be a “very strong” candidate.
“If he announced now, he’d be the front-runner,” Stabenow told the AP. “He’s a Midwesterner, and he talks like a Midwesterner. He’s somebody I think people really relate to.”
Stabenow said she dares Buttigieg’s opponents to try to use his limited time in Michigan as a political weapon.
“We have thousands of people that marry into Michigan every year,” Stabenow said. “We have a great (former) governor who was born in Canada. If that’s the best they’ve got, great.”
Buttigieg has recently spoken with labor leaders across Michigan and met with Whitmer and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a Democrat expected to enter the Senate race soon. Veteran Democratic strategist Lis Smith, a key adviser on Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign and a close ally, has also worked with McMorrow in the past.
But Buttigieg is also looking beyond Michigan.
Former Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., who left Congress in January, said she speaks to Buttigieg semi-regularly and recently encouraged him to run for the Senate. Like other Buttigieg allies, she said his young family remains his chief concern as he navigates his options.
“He’s hugely talented,” Kuster said. “And he has a tremendous ability to communicate — and communicate with the very people that we’re missing: the middle of the country, small towns.”
Whether he runs for the Senate or not, Kuster said, there are plenty of New Hampshire Democrats who’d welcome him back to the state’s high-profile presidential primary in 2028. Buttigieg finished second in New Hampshire during his underdog 2020 presidential bid.
Kuster pointed to Obama as an example of someone who ran for the Senate and then president a few years later.
“These are all of the things he and his team are navigating,” Kuster said. “He obviously has a ton of choices.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.