Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg ( /ˈbuːtəˌdʒɛdʒ/; born January 19, 1982) is an American politician. He is the 19th and current United States Secretary of Transportation during the Joe Biden administration. He was the 32nd Mayor of South Bend, Indiana from 2012 through 2020. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
In 2017, Buttigieg ran for Chair of the Democratic National Committee in its 2017 chairmanship election, but lost the election. In January 2019, Buttigieg announced his plans to run for President of the United States in the 2020 election. He formally launched his campaign on April 14, 2019. Buttigieg narrowly won the Iowa caucus, despite losing the popular vote to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. He soon lost the later primaries in New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. He ended his campaign on March 1, 2020.
In December 2020, then President-elect Joe Biden chose him to be United States Secretary of Transportation. He was confirmed by the United States Senate in February 2021. He became the first openly gay individual and the first millennial member of the United States Cabinet.