Speakeasy With John Harwood

In the sprawling 2020 Democratic field, Pete Buttigieg may be the unlikeliest serious contender of all. He’s just 37 years old. He’s the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a city of barely more than 100,000 people. If elected, he would become the youngest president in American history, and the first to be openly-gay. Yet Buttigieg has a remarkably broad range of experiences and talents. After graduating from Harvard, he became a Rhodes Scholar. He advised major businesses as a McKinsey and Company management consultant. He won the mayoralty at age 29 and then, while serving, was deployed as a Naval intelligence reserve officer to Afghanistan. He speaks seven languages, and has performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on piano with the South Bend Symphony. Even while officially just “exploring” a Democratic nominate bid, Buttigieg has ridden his millennial appeal past more experienced rivals in some polls and in fund-raising. The $7-million he raised in the first quarter of 2019 exceeded the totals of Sens. Elizabeth