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Pete Buttigieg Gives Revealing Answer When Pressed on 2028 Run for President

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Pete Buttigieg isn’t fully committed to a 2028 Presidential run.

But he’s leaning that direction.

His full answer when pressed on the question during a podcast appearance this week is very intriguing.

Particularly in light of polling among likely voters, which has consistently shown Pete as a party favorite among Democrats for a 2028 run for the White House.

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But — though he is a definite top contender among Democrat voters — not every poll has the former Transportation Secretary coming out on top.

(I am so very tempted to drop a joke here — but I’ll try to keep it semi-professional.)

We’ll get more into those polling trends in a moment.

But first, let’s listen in on Pete’s response when Steven Bartlett framed the question of a 2028 Presidential run perfectly in a SUCCESSFUL attempt to keep the politician from wiggling free of answering the question.

Here’s that clip from this week’s “The Diary of a CEO” podcast:

I love how Steven Bartlett presented the “will you or won’t you” question as a question of graduated INCLINATION rather than a set-in-stone confirmation.

He completely bypassed that slimy politician tendency to talk around the question. (Good job, Steven!)

If you watched that clip, you heard Buttigieg cut himself off at one point.

It sounded as though he was about to say something about “the read of–“.

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At which point he laughs, covers his face, and stops short; presumably because he was about to bring up something along the lines of polling, and taking the political temperature on a possible campaign.

If that’s where he was about to go with the conversation, it likely has something to do with recent polling trends, as mentioned in this report from USA Today:

The race for the White House in 2028 is beginning to take shape, and Pete Buttigieg says he’s leaning toward another Democratic presidential campaign.

Appearing on Steven Bartlett’s “The Diary of a CEO” podcast on Aug. 3, the former transportation secretary said he is “more inclined than not” to run for president again, though he stressed that many factors could influence his decision.

“I think I’m more inclined than not, but there’s so much we don’t know,” Buttigieg said. “There’s so much I don’t even know about what’s going to happen this year, let alone … what we need to know later.”

Buttigieg, who finished fifth in the 2020 Democratic primary, remains one of the party’s most closely watched potential 2028 candidates.

An Emerson College poll released July 23 showed Buttigieg leading the Democratic field with 19%, narrowly ahead of California Gov. Gavin Newsom at 17%. Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez followed behind. (Emphasis added.)

As we’ll get into in a moment, Buttigieg hasn’t consistently landed the top spot in every major poll.

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Several have him lagging slightly behind the other top contenders, including Gavin Newsom.

Which is why many of the top left-leaning social media accounts are jumping on Buttigieg’s 2028 aspirations not necessarily in view of the Oval Office.

Many, like this one, are picturing a matchup like a President Gavin Newsom / VP Pete Buttigieg ticket:

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And that was even before the most recent polling mentioned in that USA Today article I quoted from above.

In May, an AtlasIntel poll had Kamala in a distant 4th and Gavin Newsom in 3rd place among Democrat primary voters.

And AOC held a slight edge on Pete in that same poll:

Still, he’s consistently ranking in the top field among Democrat hopefuls.

While the polling surely continues to occupy space in Buttigieg’s political planning…

He says one of the top considerations that would play into his final decision in a 2028 run for President is his “husband” and adopted twin boys, as covered by Newsweek:

The former transportation secretary, who finished fifth in the 2020 Democratic primary before Joe Biden secured the nomination, said fatherhood has changed how he weighs the decision. He and his husband, Chasten Buttigieg, adopted twins in 2021.

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“That’s changed all of my equations,” Buttigieg said. “It’s just something that you really sit with and take seriously, which you should.”

He stopped short of committing. But six years after his surprise breakout in Iowa, early data suggests Buttigieg would enter a 2028 field as one of its strongest contenders, not a long shot.

Buttigieg has topped or placed near the top of nearly every major 2028 Democratic primary survey released this year, though the timing of each poll matters as much as the result. A Manhattan Institute poll taken from July 1 to July 6 found him in third place with 13 percent support, behind former Vice President Kamala Harris at 19 percent and California Governor Gavin Newsom at 15 percent.

A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released in February found Buttigieg leading with 20 percent, narrowly ahead of Ocasio-Cortez and Newsom at 15 percent each. Buttigieg also had the highest favorability rating of any potential candidate tested, at 72 percent.

The volatility reflects a field where, in one survey, 16 percent of voters said they remained unsure, and the first primary is still more than 17 months away.

With midterm primaries wrapping up in Michigan, Pete high-fived both Jocelyn Benson and the radical progressive Abdul El Sayed in a social media post a few hours ago.

But his message didn’t read like the run-of-the-mill victory lap.

It was framed like a campaign message, and took direct aim at the White House:

Here’s the full text of his post for convenience:

Congratulations to @JocelynBenson , @AbdulElSayed , and all the candidates up and down the ticket who earned our party’s nomination here in Michigan.

Now it’s time to come together and deliver the case that Democrats must make over the next 90 days, everywhere we go. We will win because we know how to team up, and because our message speaks across party lines to what most Michiganders already believe:

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If you’ve had enough of the White House sending America’s service members and tax dollars into an endless new Middle East war, while gas prices are going up here at home, welcome aboard.

If you want leaders, from Lansing to Washington, who are prepared to lower the cost of living, improve health care, and confront corruption, we are asking for your vote.

If you believe the people we elect from Michigan should prioritize serving you and your family – not their own pockets and certainly not blind allegiance to the President – please join us.

Together, through the ballot box, we can change the direction of our country, fix our broken politics, and deliver an economy worthy of the American dream.

While Pete attempted to couch that message in view of localized Michigan politics…

He spent most of the time talking about national issues directly pertaining to President Trump and decisions being made inside the Oval Office.

Sounds like a soft-launch of Buttigieg’s 2028 campaign to me!

Keep in mind, one of Buttigieg’s biggest pet-peeves is the Electoral College.

He brought up that subject during the same podcast on Monday, as well as pushing for packing the Supreme Court:

Here’s a full screen version of that clip for easier viewing:

At one time, it was laughable to consider the likes of Pete Buttigieg successfully orchestrating a Presidential election win.

But this is the same Democratic party that threw out millions of votes, disregarded the DEMOCRATIC PROCESS, and then essentially ordained Kamala Harris as their nominee.

And… has a proven track record of stealing elections.

Including Presidential elections.  (There was a recent time I couldn’t even put that in print without expecting Democrats to weaponize their lawfare in response!)

Time will tell if Pete Buttigieg actually pulls the trigger for 2028, and then whether or not he can pull off the Democratic nomination.

But he is seen as a viable candidate for a lot of the Democratic masses.

And I’m not going to lie.

For me, that brings back the old fears once amplified for so many of us during the Obama and then the Biden years of a country teetering on the edge of economic insolvency and catastrophic social upheaval.

I don’t want to see our cities burning again.

I don’t want to see our governmental systems weaponized, again.

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And I don’t want to watch the political establishment regain its former power to the ruin of everyday Americans… AGAIN.

Keep your eyes open, head on a swivel, and keep praying for this great nation.

That political pendulum eventually swings both ways.

But maybe it doesn’t have to swing so far — or at all? — the next time around.


 

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