Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg (pronounced /ˈbʊtədʒʌdʒ/ "Buddha-judge"; born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 United States presidential election.
Buttigieg is a graduate of Harvard College and Oxford University, attending the latter on a Rhodes Scholarship. From 2007 to 2010, he worked as a consultant at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. From 2009 to 2017, he served as a naval intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve, attaining the rank of lieutenant. In 2014, he was deployed to Afghanistan for seven months and was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal.
Before running for office, Buttigieg worked on the political campaigns of Democrats Jill Long Thompson, Joe Donnelly, and John Kerry. Buttigieg served as the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana from January 2012 to January 2020. Once elected mayor of South Bend, Indiana, he became the youngest mayor of a city with a population of over 100,000. In 2015, Buttigieg publicly came out as gay and was reelected with over 80% of the vote.