US Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will speak at 4 p.m. today, Wednesday, April 4, at Northeastern University as part of a public presentation series called The Public Experience.
According to the Boston Globe, though the public talk is listed as “sold out” on the Eventbrite website, the event is not ticketed and people can attend on a first-come, first-served basis.
Reports the Globe:
“Mayor Pete” is in town. …
Buttigieg will join WBUR’s Kimberly Atkins for a conversation about how “millennials are increasingly driving the national political agenda,” according to Northeastern’s website. Buttigieg, if elected, would be the nation’s first millennial president and first openly gay commander in chief. …
The mayor’s visit is part of Northeastern’s series of conversations with emerging leaders in media, politics, and policy. Upcoming subjects include FiveThirtyEight founder and editor in chief Nate Silver, NBC News chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson, and Bloomberg News congressional reporter Arit John.
According to peteforamerica.com, the candidate’s official website which introduces Buttigieg as “a millennial Mayor, Afghanistan war veteran, and husband”:
Pete Buttigieg is in his eighth and final year as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Pete was first elected mayor in 2011 at only 29 years old, and re-elected in 2015 with 80 percent of the vote.
Under his leadership, South Bend has reimagined its role in the global economy with job growth and major investment in advanced industries, with a focus on data and technology.
Pete served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and took an unpaid seven months leave during his mayoral term for a deployment to Afghanistan. For his counterterrorism work, he earned the Joint Service Commendation Medal.
In 2017, he ran for Democratic National Committee chair, earning national praise for his clear message and emphasis on rebuilding the Democratic Party from the ground up in every community. He currently serves as the chair of the “Automation and the Impacts on America’s Cities” task force at the United States Conference of Mayors.
The Washington Post has called him “the most interesting Mayor you’ve never heard of” and President Obama named him one of four Democrats who represented the future of the Democratic Party.
A Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and graduate of Harvard, he lives with his husband Chasten in the same South Bend neighborhood where he grew up, with their two rescue dogs, Truman and Buddy.
