President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his secretary of transportation, elevating his onetime rival to a key role in the incoming administration’s push to rebuild American infrastructure and the economy,” the Washington Post reported.
Buttigieg was born in South Bend, Ind. in 1982. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard University. He also studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar.
From 2007 to 2010, Buttigieg worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company, specializing in economic development, business, logistics and energy initiatives for government and private sector clients. Before his own bids for public office, Buttigieg worked for the campaigns of presidential candidate John Kerry (2004) as a research director and Indiana gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson (2008) as an advisor. He became a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2009.
Buttigieg ran for treasurer of Indiana as a Democrat in 2010, losing in the general election to Richard Mourdock (R). The following year, he won the South Bend mayoral election with 74% of the vote. At the age of 29, he was the youngest mayor of a city with more than 100,000 residents.
In 2014, he took a leave of absence as mayor and completed a seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, earning the Joint Service Commendation Medal for his contributions to counterterrorism. He was re-elected mayor in 2015 with 80% of the vote.
Buttigieg was a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee in 2017 but withdrew his candidacy before a vote was held. He previously served as president of the Indiana Urban Mayors Caucus and on the boards of directors of the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns and the Truman National Security Project.
Buttigieg announced he was running for president on Jan. 23, 2019. He suspended his presidential campaign on March 1, 2020. While running for president, Buttigieg unveiled a plan to pour more than $1 trillion into creating millions of jobs and updating U.S. infrastructure with an eye toward fending off the effects of climate change.
The 17-page plan called for working with states, cities and local governments to build sustainable infrastructure that also builds “opportunity, equity and empowerment.”
“When our infrastructure works well, we hardly notice,” the Buttigieg plan said. “These days, we notice our infrastructure a lot.”
The proposal promised to create 6 million jobs with “strong labor protections;” ensure access to clean drinking water while lowering water bills across the U.S. and protecting against lead in paint and water; repair roads and bridges in poor condition by 2030; and invest in sustainable infrastructure that enables 50% of the country to grow over the next 10 years.
Buttigieg proposed doubling the Transportation Department’s BUILD grant program, which funds a wide variety of infrastructure projects, to $2 billion a year. The plan would have boosted transit, passenger rail and electric vehicles, and cut the backlog of road repairs in half over 10 years while repairing half of the nation’s structurally deficient bridges in the country by 2030 — both massive, expensive undertakings.
His approach to revitalizing the shrinking Highway Trust Fund called for the federal government to “inject” $165 billion to keep it afloat through 2029, while requiring DOT to propose a new user fee system such as a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fee to replace the gas tax.
“As the former Mayor of South Bend, Ind., Buttigieg understands the vital role that transportation plays in people’s lives,” said Jim Tymon, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (AASHTO) executive director. “AASHTO’s membership – the hardworking public servants at every state department of transportation in the country – are appreciative of the Secretary-designee’s call for robust investment in our multimodal transportation system and his commitment to improving transportation safety. We look forward to working with him and the administration of President-elect Joe Biden to deliver an integrated, efficient, and innovative national transportation system.”