Pete Buttigieg Embraces Top-Tier Status With New Message of Unity

(Bloomberg) -- Exuding a new confidence as a top-tier candidate, Pete Buttigieg is seizing on Joe Biden's stumbles in Iowa and deepening questions about Senator Elizabeth Warren's electability to pitch himself as the alternative to both -- and the candidate best positioned to lead the Democrats against President Donald Trump.

Buttigieg, who has firmly established himself as a serious contender to win the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3, pitched himself to voters on a four-day swing through the state as a young moderate with the policy positions and background that could help Democrats recapture the industrial Midwest.

“I will not waver from my commitment to our values or back down from the boldness of our ideas,” Buttigieg said Friday at the Liberty and Justice Celebration, where he had among the largest and loudest crowds. “But I also will not tire from the effort to include everyone in this future we are trying to build -- progressives, moderates, and Republicans of conscience who are ready for a change. The time has come.”

Although Biden still leads most national polls, recent Iowa surveys show the race has tightened to almost a four-way tie among him, Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders and Buttigieg. The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has emerged from the back of the field to competing with politicians who have decades more experience on the national stage.

Buttigieg kicked off the Iowa tour with one of the largest crowds in the state for a presidential candidate this year. More than 2,300 supporters, decked out in the campaign's signature blue and yellow, ignored the rain and chilly temperatures in a downtown Des Moines park to greet him before Friday's Democratic gathering.

Earlier: Buttigieg, Other Democrats Look to ‘Era That Must Come Next'

On Saturday, he began a three-day bus tour of the northern part of Iowa, inviting reporters along for the ride.

“I don't think the world is broken up in good and bad people, and I definitely don't think how you vote makes you a bad person or a good person,” Buttigieg said during a stop in Charles City.

In an era of divisive politics, Buttigieg is putting more emphasis on emulating Barack Obama's successful hope and change message. When asked about Warren's message of “big structural change” or Sanders' call for a “political revolution,” Buttigieg dismissed those pitches as “definitely not unifying.”

At a town hall in Waverly, Buttigieg went further, calling for mobilizing an American majority to push for “big meaningful change,” a slight, but noteworthy tweak of Warren's signature slogan, “big structural change.”

“We will fight when we must fight,” Buttigieg told the Liberty and Justice crowd Friday in a 16,000-seat stadium. “But I will never allow us to get so wrapped up in the fighting that we start to think fighting is the point. The point is what lies on the other side of the fight.”

Warren responded by warning against a campaign that “that nibbles around the edges.”

“Anyone who comes on this stage and doesn't understand that we're already in a fight is not the person who is going to win that fight,” Warren told the same crowd. “Anyone who comes on this stage and tells you they can make change without a fight, is not going to win that fight.”

Read More: Warren Highlights Electability as New Democratic Front-Runner

Although popular in Iowa, a significant hurdle for Buttigieg is his lack of support among black voters, a crucial constituency for Democrats. Buttigieg is polling in the low single digits among African-Americans.

Representative Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, said “there's no question” that Buttigieg's sexual orientation is an issue for older black voters.

“I know of a lot of people my age that feel that way,” Clyburn told CNN on Sunday. “I'm not going to sit here and tell you otherwise. I think everybody knows that's an issue.”

But Clyburn also said the hurdle may be generational, pointing out that his grandson works on the Buttigieg campaign in South Carolina.

On the bus tour, Buttigieg also said he is “impatient with labels” when asked about being described as a moderate. Instead, the mayor wants voters to believe he can deliver progressive change but not at the expense of further dividing the country. It's also a strategic messaging choice that threatens to further peel away voters from Biden, the leading moderate candidate.

Read More: Biden in Danger of Humiliating Loss in Iowa, Democrats Warn

Biden's Iowa operation has been criticized by top Iowa Democrats for failing to engage with both Iowa voters and party and state leaders, which is particularly crucial in a caucus state. Buttigieg has spent significant campaign time there.

For Carly Wilson, a 31-year-old banker from Clear Lake, Iowa, Buttigieg's message rang true.

“Pete understands we need to make changes, but he also knows you can't alienate groups of individuals,” she said before the candidate took the stage in Mason City.

Wilson also reeled off the many policy proposals of Buttigieg's that she likes, especially his health care plan, which would create a publicly funded option but also allow a role for private insurance.

Claudia Bolles, 62, said she also appreciated Buttigieg's inclusive message, and in particular, his appeal to younger voters.

“He's realistic and he's thinking ahead of things that will work,” the Aredale, Iowa, resident said. “He's got our younger people in mind and he's not alienating them. I think he can get them all behind him and rally them.”

But there are still concerns about Buttigieg's lack of experience

“I want somebody new,” said Kathi Fielder, a 73-year-old resident of Mason City who is also considering Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. “I like his age. I think he's very smart, but I worry about his lack of experience.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Tyler Pager in Des Moines at tpager1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, John Harney

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