There is one Democratic presidential candidate that seems to be rubbing all the others the wrong way, and that is South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
While Mayor Pete is, generally speaking, unfailingly tactful and polite, the fact that his campaign is doing so well while the campaigns of other, senior Democrat politicians are tanking has given rise to jealousy and anger.
One candidate who has made no secret of her anger over Buttigieg’s campaign’s success is Sen. Amy Klobuchar. It’s not hard to see why she is so irate, given the fact that a recent poll shows the South Bend mayor is leading all the other candidates in the upcoming Iowa caucuses. Sen. Klobuchar, on the other hand, ranks in fifth place with a measly 5% of support among likely voters.
In recent comments to journalists, Sen. Klobuchar said that Mayor Pete is getting a lot of attention in the race simply because he is a man. The comment is an odd one considering the fact that there are plenty of other men in the primary who are getting little or no support, including Julian Castro, Tom Steyer, and Sen. Cory Booker. Even so, Sen. Klobuchar asserted that a female in Mayor Pete’s position wouldn’t receive as much support. She then played the race card by stating that a “woman of color” who was the mayor of a small town would not perform as well in the presidential primaries.
Sen. Klobuchar isn’t the only one to take aim at Mayor Buttigieg. Former Democrat presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke called the mayor a “human weather vane” who “represented the worst of politics.” Julian Castro said that minority voters don’t trust the mayor. While the latter statement is true to some extent, Mayor Pete’s competitors seem to be missing the reason why he is performing so well.
Many people in the Democratic Party are still moderate voters to some extent, and are unwilling to jump on the far-left bandwagon for a candidate who wants to upend the economy, confiscate guns, and force taxpayers to pay for gender transition surgery. Mayor Pete, like former Vice-President Joe Biden, is relatively moderate compared to his progressive rivals. He has criticized Sen. Warren for her desire to ditch the medical insurance industry. The mayor also attacked Beto O’Rourke’s gun control ideas.
When the Democratic primary season first started, the candidates made a point of avoiding personal attacks on each other, and focused on President Trump instead. However, that now seems to be changing.
Buttigieg’s success may not necessarily lead to his nomination, however, his successful campaign has already catapulted the small-town mayor into the limelight. He will most likely walk away from the season a winner even if he doesn’t gain the ultimate prize. His jealous rivals seem to realize that this is the case, and they want to take him out sooner rather than later.
