Buttigieg heading to Iowa for first in-person event since Trump’s return
(CNN) — Pete Buttigieg is putting the podcast microphones aside and heading out on the road.
The former Transportation secretary, who in March a run for a US Senate seat in Michigan — guided by what people close to him confirmed was interest in a possible second presidential bid — will be in Iowa on May 13, CNN has learned. He’ll headline a town hall with the group VoteVets Action Fund that will be his first public in-person event since finishing his Cabinet job with the Biden administration in January.
Since Democrats moved away from using the Iowa caucuses as their first presidential nominating contest after the 2020 election, the state is no longer as critical for a White House race. But Buttigieg’s decision to head back to the state where he the caucuses in 2020, and to make that trip in coordination with a group that focuses on veterans, is still meant to be a tease at a time when have started stepping out more.
It’s also a shift for Buttigieg, who spent the first few months of Donald Trump’s return to the White House making a flurry of media appearances, from appearing on Stephen Colbert’s late night show to provide a live response to the president’s address to the joint session of Congress to spending three hours on the “Flagrant” podcast, making him one of the first potential 2028 Democrat to head into the “manosphere” outlets which last year. He’s also appeared on podcasts hosted by NPR and “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart along the way.
Chris Meagher, a Buttigieg adviser, said that the trip fits into a broader outreach aimed at substantive discussions with Americans about how they’re thinking and feeling about the effects of Trump’s policies.
“We’re trying out several different formats — town halls, Q&As with different people on his social media, going out to podcasts and shows both political and non-political, and more — to try to reach people where they are, both in-person and online,” Meagher told CNN. For the event in Cedar Rapids, Buttigieg “will be talking about the outsized impact that Trump’s actions in the first 100 days have had on veterans,” Meagher added.
Buttigieg is a veteran himself, as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserves, along with a six-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Matt Corridoni, a VoteVets spokesman, said that the group will also be inviting micro-influencers to the event as part of an effort to reach center-right voters they believe could be persuaded by hearing more about veterans’ issues and the effects of cuts overseen by Elon Musk.
Buttigieg’s virtual appearances will continue too. He is expected to sit down soon with Dean Withers, who has 3 million followers on TikTok, with the goal of reaching out to Republican-leaning voters disenchanted by the president’s early actions and the impact on their lives. He’s recorded several other appearances that are set to be released soon, according to a source familiar with the plans.
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