Likely Presidential Candidate Buttigeg Speaks With Sharpton at NAN Convention

By Tywanna Webb

 

Pete Buttigeg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a Democratic presidential candidates, discussed his agenda with the Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network’s Convention.

“I believe that the time has has come for a new generation to put forward leaders in enterprise, activism and in politics at the highest level,” Buttigeg said to the crowd on Thursday.

The National Action Network is a civil rights organization founded in 1991 by civil rights leader, Reverend Al Sharpton.

Buttigeg (prounounced Buddha-Chegg)  was deemed the “Most Interesting Mayor You’ve Never Heard Of” by the Washington Post in 2014. He is a Afghanistan War Veteran and the first openly gay municipal executive in Indiana. If he secures the Democratic nomination, he would be the first openly gay presidential nominee.

While speaking to the predominately African-American crowd, Buttigeg focused on ways to improve the quality of life for people of color.

“I believe an agenda for black Americans needs to include five things that all of us care about: homeownership, entrepreneurship, education, health and justice,”  Buttigeg said.

Buttigeg spoke of changes he would like to see made in each of those areas, as he also addressed the social shortcomings his hometown, South Bend.

“We worked hard to address the racial inequities that still hold us back from being the city we wish to be,” he said.

Buttigeg was born in South Bend and resides in his childhood neighborhood, living with his husband and their two rescue dogs.

Buttigeg acknowledged that, despite his efforts, there is still much more work to be done in South Bend, as in the rest of the nation.  Issues such as criminal justice reform, police accountability and educational reform are expected to be hot topics among African-American voters in the run-up to the 2020 election.

Referring to what he called “disparities that have strong and unfair racial consequences,” Buttigeg said that he plans to invest in economic rehabilitation programs for disadvantaged minorities.

“These disparities did not just happen,” he said. “They are the side effects a poison and those inequities won’t take care of themselves.”

These “side effects,” he said, included higher maternal mortality rates in African-American women, higher statistics of mass incarceration in African-American men and obstacles that adversely affect home ownership rates in black neighborhoods.

“That’s what politics is about,” he said, “to mend what is broken and to make right what is wrong. That is the nature of American greatness.”

Buttigeg formed a exploratory campaign committee in January and is expected to officially announce his candidacy later this month.