Buttigieg’s Plan To Help Dems Win Again Starts With The Indiana State Legislature

Pete Buttigieg’s efforts to help Democrats regain power are taking on a new focus: state legislatures.

The former Transportation secretary and South Bend, Indiana, mayor is starting by backing a crop of mostly long-shot, down-ballot Democrats in his former backyard. The slate of endorsements in the Indiana state House and Senate, shared first with POLITICO, is the first move in what his team say will be a number of state-by-state endorsements.

“This is an area where Democrats should learn from Republicans who spent many years patiently and cleverly building up power all the way up from the school board level,” said Buttigieg, fresh off endorsement wins, including Rep. Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin and former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin in Connecticut, who defeated Rep. John Larson (His preferred candidate for Minnesota Senate, Angie Craig, lost.)

Buttigieg is backing Indiana state House candidates Ryan Kominakis, Tiffany Stoner, Kim Townsend and Lindsay Gramlich, and state Senate candidates Scott Houldieson and Gabrianna Gratzol. He is also endorsing Beau Bayh for secretary of state and Coumba Kebe for state treasurer, the same office that drew Buttigieg into politics in 2010.

“I think about the trajectory of Indiana when I first was getting involved as a volunteer 20 years ago, where you had a House delegation that was about half and half, you had a Democratic Speaker of the House, and it's shown me that you know things changed and things can change again,” Buttigieg said. “I was also drawn to people who really had a strong sense of place, and who you could tell they came by politics honestly.”

It’s not just Indiana. Buttigieg held a Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee virtual fundraiser on Monday and just last week headlined the Democratic legislator lunch at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Legislative Summit in Chicago. Earlier this year, he helped Michigan House Democrats launch a canvass and campaigned in a Michigan state Senate special election that broke for his party. In July, he raised money for Democratic state lawmakers in Florida.

Buttigieg, who now lives in Michigan, has said he is “more likely than not” to run for president again in 2028. He has hit early Democratic nominating states such as Nevada and touched down in all seven presidential battleground states.

But he has also spent much of this year zigging across the map where other potential rivals are zagging — part of a larger project of building anew Democratic governingcoalition. Buttigieg has hit red bastions such as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and Ohio. In June, his Win the Era PAC cut $5,000 checks and sent them to all 50 state Democratic parties, along with Puerto Rico’s.

“I'm looking for chances to show the sort of coalition we're building, and I'm drawn to places where Democrats have faced headwinds for many years,” said Buttigieg.