Presidential Election

Pete Buttigieg Officially Announces He's Running For President

The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, set up an exploratory committee back in January.

Pete Buttigieg Officially Announces He's Running For President
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Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, officially announced he's running for president on Sunday.

"The forces changing our country today are tectonic. ... That's why this time it's not just about winning an election. It's about winning an era," Buttigieg told a crowd in South Bend. 

Buttigieg's announcement came after he formed an exploratory committee back in January. 

Buttigieg, who previously served in Afghanistan, was first elected mayor of Indiana's fourth-largest city in 2011. He was 29 years old at the time, making him the youngest mayor of a city with at least 100,000 residents. Since then he's run for chair of the Democratic National Committee.

If Buttigieg were to secure his party's nomination, he'd be the first openly-gay presidential nominee from a major political party.

Despite initially seeming like a longshot contender when he first announced his exploratory committee, Buttigieg's since raised more than $7 million. According to fundraising numbers pulled by CNN, that's more money raised in the first quarter of 2019 than the majority of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls. 

Additional reporting from Newsy affiliate CNN.