Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the best choice for the Democratic nomination in 2020. By a mile.

Likely the smartest contender we’ve seen since JFK, Mayor Pete ticks all the boxes and more. After graduating from Harvard and becoming a Rhodes scholar, Mayor Pete volunteered to serve in the Navy. He gained executive experience as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, beginning in 2012, and he deployed to Afghanistan (foregoing his mayoral salary) in 2014. He won an overwhelming re-election and started his second term in 2016. South Bend stopped its decline and began its climb specifically because of initiatives taken under Mayor Pete.

No candidate is more data-driven and genuine than Mayor Pete. His Medicare-for-all-who-want-it plan borrows from the successful health care systems of virtually every other developed nation; it’s what the majority of Americans want. He isn’t yet another ideologue who wants to force people onto government insurance because it fits an ideology (like with Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders or Kamala Harris). Mayor Pete cares about what works and how he can improve lives.

The generational change Mayor Pete represents is desperately needed today. We can’t risk nominating a Biden or a Sanders; neither will be will around in 40 years to own his legacy. With the latter (because of a recent heart attack), it’s not even clear if he’ll be around in 2024. In stark contrast, we can be confident that Mayor Pete will be around to seek a re-Pete victory against whoever the GOP nominates.

Please vote for Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the Maine Democratic primary on March 3, 2020.

Michael Hawkins

Augusta