The young mayor's Christian values, military service and academic bearing got him into the conversation. Will his support hold as the race for the Democratic nomination heats up? IowaCaucuses
The queue stretches long around Indianola High School, shooting from its red brick gymnasium into the crisp sunshine of the first day of winter. There are 1,200 people waiting—more than the number of students enrolled in this rural Iowa school—and when the doors open, they all cram inside, body odours mingling indistinguishably with the gym’s natural scent.
When Buttigieg takes the stage, he speaks the same way, putting on what can only be described as his “presidential voice,” with hints of Barack Obama’s lilting emphasis, pausing to punctuate words like “country,” “faith,” “constitution” and “heart.” He begins his stump speech by asking audiences to picture “what it’s gonna be like when the sun comes up over the United States of America and Donald Trump is no longer in the Oval Office.” The folksy framework appeals to Midwestern sensibilities.
Registered caucus members fill 1,681 precincts—schools, libraries, community centres—to rally around their candidates. If a candidate does not reach 15 per cent support in the room, that candidate’s supporters can align themselves with another candidate. On and on it goes, for hours, in a process populated by democracy’s truest believers.
His zeal led him to Harvard, where he studied history and literature, living next door to a reclusive coder named Mark Zuckerberg, who was then building “TheFacebook.” Buttigieg was the social network’s 287th member. “Putting something this personal on the pages of a newspaper does not come easy. We Midwesterners are instinctively private to begin with, and I’m not used to viewing this as anyone else’s business,” he wrote. “But it’s clear to me that at a moment like this, being more open about it could do some good.” He meant it would do some good for kids afraid of revealing their own sexuality.
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