Out former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he believes America is ready for a gay president when asked about it on the Sunday morning news talk program Meet the Press.
The show’s hostess Kristen Welker mentioned to Buttigieg that former Vice President Kamala Harris wrote in her 2025 book 107 Days that, during her 2024 presidential campaign, she would’ve chosen Buttigieg as her running mate if she herself had been a straight white man.
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“‘But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk,’” Welker recited from Harris’ book.
Welker then asked Buttigieg, “[Harris] was essentially saying that she didn’t think America was ready for a gay vice president with a Black woman at the top of the ticket. Let me ask you today: Do you think America is ready for a gay president?”
Buttigieg responded, “I wouldn’t have run for president in the first place, if I didn’t believe that, of course.” He then noted that, while serving as mayor of Bend, Indiana, in a deep-red state, he won 80% of the vote in his 2015 re-election campaign after publicly coming out as gay.
“What’s on people’s minds isn’t about you, your identity as a candidate. It’s about them. It’s about their lives,” Buttigieg added. “Right now, Americans are hurting in [Donald] Trump’s economy. There is an opportunity to change that, and the voters that I see, they are turning out in levels I didn’t think was possible, coming out hundreds and hundreds at a time because they want to be part of this effort, this conversation, this movement to change the course of our country before it’s too late.”
Welker then noted that Buttigieg struggled to gain support from Black Democratic voters in his past presidential campaigns. Buttigieg said that any Democratic presidential candidate would need to “engage and support and turn out” Black voters. He said it’s especially important now, amid the Republican project of “systematically dismantling” and suppressing Black political representation following the US Supreme Court’s rulings against anti-racist provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
When Welker asked if Buttigieg planned to run in 2028, he said, “We are about 50 days away from a critically important midterm, one that I believe Democrats are going to win. It’s 2026. We gotta focus on what’s happening right now…. I don’t want to do anything that would take the focus off of that.”
Buttigieg has suggested in the past that he plans on running for president in 2028. He has been touring the country, holding town hall events, speaking at local Democratic functions, and showing his support for candidates up for reelection this year. These appearances have notably included several early primary states, like Iowa and New Hampshire.
A poll from May showed that Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are the Democratic frontrunners among Americans who were asked about voting in a 2028 presidential primary. An early poll of New Hampshire Democratic primary voters also showed Buttigieg coming out on top of other potential Democratic candidates — Buttigieg spent three days during February in the state, holding town hall events and campaigning with local Democrats.
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