Soon to be "Senator" or "Governor" Pete
Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign couldn't have possibly gone better for him, despite dropping out of the race on Sunday night ahead of "Super Tuesday." The idea that the young, openly gay mayor of a small midwestern town that nobody had ever heard of could run for the nomination of a major party for president and have been in the top tier of candidates is more than Pete could have possibly hoped for.
But by every conventional wisdom, by every historical measure, we were never supposed to get anywhere at all. And then, as I said, that roller coaster February night a few weeks ago, when Iowa shocked the nation, along that way, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.
Despite the fact that we can't possibly know who actually won the Iowa Caucuses, and despite his over the top, ridiculous turns of phrase, Pete is correct that his should have been a vanity campaign that nobody remembered.
Instead, his 2020 campaign for President of United States will almost certainly be a springboard for a future run for president, but, first, we will definitely see Pete in either the United States Senate or in Indianapolis as the Governor of the state of Indiana. And this was the real purpose of Pete's run for the Democratic nomination for president.
Having been Mayor of South Bend, Indiana might have been enough of a start for his political career, but this presidential run sealed it. Pete is almost certainly the strongest Democratic politician in the state of Indiana right now and should easily win the nomination to any political office he chooses, and no one has been elected President of the United States, aside from Donald Trump or aside from having been Vice President of the United States, without having been a U.S. Senator or Governor of some state since Dwight Eisenhower.
Given that he's only 38, there's plenty of time for Pete to wait for a seat that suits him to come into play and essentially just move into it, and then use that seat to boost him in the next convenient presidential race.