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South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is running for the Democratic nomination in 2020, with 19 other hopefuls. At the time of this writing he is considered a top 5 option, give or take the polling numbers you look at.
But here's the thing. Pete is only 37 years old. Turning 38 on Jan 19th, 2020.
Contrast that with some other candidates:
Bernie Sanders - 79 years old
Joe Biden - 77 years old
Donald Trump - 74 years old
Elizabeth Warren - 71 years old
Outside of Tusli Gabbard (39 years old) Buttigieg is the only 2020 candidate running under the age of 40. And he is the youngest. Typically you think with youth comes inexperience. But when it comes to political experience = elect-ability I think Donald Trump's election win threw that metric out the window, or at least proved you don't have to be a long time politician to win the general. Or have really any political experience whatsoever if you are popular enough.
But Trump was still very well known for several decades. And of course not young. Mayor Pete is a virtual unknown to the vast majority of Americans. Seems all everyone knows about him is - he is nice, polite, well spoken, intelligent, has military experience in the Navy, is the Mayor of South Bend, IN and he is openly gay. Did I miss anything?
The youngest president elect was Theodore Roosevelt at 42 years and 322 days old. Then JFK at 43 years and 236 days old. All told, we have only elected 9 presidents in our history in their 40's out of 45 elected. And none in their 30's. So that is working against him.
Question becomes, is youth working for or against Pete Buttigieg in this 2020 election cycle? One thing to note is Pete doesn't have to win the 2020 general election to eventually become president. The fact he is so young proves he still has decades to work his way up in the political realm if he doesn't win. He can run several times between now and eventually becoming president. Not unlike Biden... Assuming that's the route he goes. So the future is bright for Pete regardless in my opinion.