Former White House candidate Pete Buttigieg, a revelation of the Democratic primaries, was chosen by Joe Biden as future transport minister, which will make him the first openly gay member of a US presidential cabinet.
His appointment, which was first announced by the American media, was confirmed on Tuesday evening, December 15, by the president-elect’s team. “I trust Pete to do this job with focus, morale, and a bold vision.”Joe Biden said in a statement. This choice must be validated by a vote of the Senate.
Mayor @PeteButtigieg is a leader, patriot, and problem-solver. He speaks to the best of who we are as a nation. I… https://t.co/6phYOS067R
Second former primary rival
After choosing Kamala Harris to run alongside him for the vice-presidency, it is the second former rival of the primary that Joe Biden decides to integrate into his team.
The 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, a mid-size town in Indiana, is one of the only political tenors so far chosen by the 70-year-old Democrat Biden to enter his government, moreover composed of specialists or technocrats. He is also one of the few personalities who was not a member of former President Barack Obama’s team, when Joe Biden was vice president, from 2009 to 2017.
If the Senate approves his appointment, “Mayor Pete” would become “The first openly LGBT person named to a permanent position within the presidential cabinet ”, welcomed in a statement the organization Victory Institute, which campaigns for personalities from sexual minorities to access executive positions.
The Human Rights Campaign association also praised on Twitter a decision “Historical”. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris “Keep their promise” in “Forming a government in the image of diversity” from America, she said.
Dazzling course
Almost unknown to the general public when he presented his candidacy for the Democratic primaries for the presidential election last November in April 2019, Pete Buttigieg, a former soldier who went through Afghanistan, had a meteoric career.
A moderate candidate, he had recorded spectacular success in the early stages of the primaries, when Joe Biden, a seasoned politician positioned on the same centrist niche, suffered disappointment after disappointment despite his status as favorite. The former vice president had finally managed to bounce back and Pete Buttigieg stepped down to his advantage in early March, helping to give decisive momentum to the one who is forty years his senior.
“He reminds me of my son, Beau”, who died of brain cancer, said Joe Biden. “It’s the best compliment I can give a man”, he added alongside the rising star of the Democratic Party, passed through Harvard, Oxford and the consulting firm McKinsey.
The former polyglot candidate – he speaks seven languages in addition to English -, married in church to her husband Chasten Buttigieg, then actively participated in the media in the victorious campaign of Joe Biden. The one to whom Democratic strategists still lend views on the White House, perhaps as early as the 2024 election if Joe Biden only serves one term, will in any case be at the heart of the Democratic president’s effort to renovate the country’s infrastructure.
This post is ” at the intersection “ to several “Challenges”, recalled Joe Biden in his press release: “Jobs, infrastructure, equity and climate all come together at the Ministry of Transport. ” Mr. Buttigieg will also have the difficult task of going to the bedside of the aviation sector, stricken by the Covid-19 pandemic which has drastically reduced commercial flights.
Our selection of articles on the presidential election in the United States
Find the campaign chronicles of our correspondent in Washington here.
On the election:
And also :
