Pete Buttigieg, the two-term mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has formed a presidential exploratory committee, a key opening step to formally launching what would be a longshot campaign to catapult from local politics onto the national stage (DEREK HENKLE)

Chicago (AFP) – Democratic mayor and military veteran Pete Buttigieg announced Wednesday that he is entering the 2020 presidential fray, aiming to become America’s youngest and first openly gay commander-in-chief.

Buttigieg said he had formed a presidential exploratory committee, a key opening step to formally launching what would be a longshot campaign to catapult from local politics onto the national stage. 

Little known outside of South Bend, Indiana, where he is the two-term mayor, Buttigieg even includes a guide to pronouncing his name on his Twitter account — it’s “BOOT-edge-edge.”

The 37-year-old Democrat, Rhodes Scholar, and Afghanistan war veteran, who married his husband last year, announced his intentions while emphasizing his millennial pedigree and track record in improving the economy in his “Rust Belt” city. 

Areas of the Midwest that have struggled for years amid a decline in manufacturing jobs were vital to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory.  

“I am obviously not stepping onto this stage as the most famous person in this conversation,” Buttigieg told reporters at a news conference.

“But, I belong to a party whose characteristic has always been to look for fresh voices, new leadership, and big ideas. And, I think that’s what 2020 is going to be about.”

– ‘Longest of longshots’ – 

The young mayor faces substantial odds from a growing list of charismatic Democrats seeking to carry their party’s torch into 2020, including three female US senators — Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand — and Hispanic-American former Obama cabinet member Julian Castro.

In a campaign-style video posted online, Buttigieg portrayed himself as a can-do reformer who revived his mid-sized city after decades of population flight and economic decline brought on by the loss of manufacturing jobs. 

He makes no mention of Trump, instead taking aim at what he called the “show” in Washington: “The corruption, the fighting, the lying, the crisis. It’s got to end.” 

“We’re the generation that lived through school shootings, that served in the wars after 9/11. And we’re the generation that stands to be the first to make less than our parents — unless we do something different,” he said.

Buttigieg was born and raised in South Bend, studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a degree in history from Harvard University. 

He has been mentioned as a potential presidential hopeful for years and was in the early primary state of Iowa last year, testing out a campaign message and attempting to build name recognition.

“Longest of longshots, but this 37-year-old gay, Afghanistan War vet has a remarkable story,” David Axelrod, who was a senior aide to former president Barack Obama, said on Twitter.

The Democratic field of contenders is expected to broaden in the coming months to likely include former vice president Joe Biden, Senator Cory Booker, former congressman Beto O’Rourke, and Senator Bernie Sanders, the runner-up for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

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