5 potential running mates for Kamala Harris
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
If a Harris-Buttigieg ticket is elected, Buttigieg would become the first openly gay vice president in U.S. history.
Buttigieg, 42, first emerged as a national figure after launching his own bid for the presidency ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
While the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, won the Iowa caucuses that kicked off the monthlong season of Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses, he dropped out of the race shortly thereafter after failing to win any of the other early states. He endorsed Biden.
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Buttigieg has served as the Secretary of Transportation, one of several cabinet positions, since early in the Biden administration.
Although Buttigieg has been outspoken about his Christian faith, some of his comments have drawn criticism due to the implication that living in a same-sex marriage is not contrary to Christian teaching.
In remarks made at a brunch hosted by the LGBT Victory Fund in 2019, Buttigieg delivered a message to then-Vice President Mike Pence, a well-known devout Christian who ascribes to traditional beliefs about marriage and sexuality.
"My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man — and yes, Mr. vice president, it has moved me to closer to God," he said. "And that's the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand, that if you've got a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my Creator."
Buttigieg has not hesitated to call into question the authenticity of Evangelicals, one of Trump's most loyal voting blocs. In a 2019 interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Buttigieg described the "hypocrisy" of Evangelicals who support Trump as "unbelievable."
"Here you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything that I hear in Scripture or in church, where it's about lifting up the least among us and taking care of strangers, which is another word for immigrants, and making sure that you're focusing your effort on the poor," he asserted. "We see the diametric opposite of that in this presidency."
"Even on the version of Christianity that you hear on the religious right, which is about sexual ethics — I can't believe that somebody who was writing hush money checks to adult film actresses is somebody they should be lifting up as the kind of person you want to be leading this nation."
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
