Opinion: Pete Buttigieg was never a good candidate anyway

It always seemed like a long shot for Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of a city of 100,000, to become president of a country with 327.2 million citizens. And while he brought youth and fresh ideas to the table, ultimately Democratic voters decided he was not qualified to be their nominee for the presidency.

On Sunday afternoon, Mayor Buttigieg returned to where his campaign started, South Bend, Indiana, and announced the suspension of his campaign. While talking about the values his campaign stood for, Buttigieg announced, “One of those values is truth and today is a moment of truth. The truth is that the path has narrowed to a close, for our candidacy if not for our cause.”

When looking at various factors of election, it becomes clear why Buttigieg was always a long-shot to win the nomination.

He never attracted enough support. According to CNN, Buttigieg attracted protesters, upset that his policies aligned more with the establishment than they wanted, at his Iowa town hall at Grinnell College. Buttigieg addressed the protesters, but this interaction left a bad taste in some of their mouths. 

Everyone has protesters, but in this case the protesters accurately represented their demographic. Buttigieg’s polling with voters under the age of 35, an important demographic, was low. CNN’s average polling for Buttigieg’s support under age 35 was 8%. In the newest Quinnipiac poll, Buttigieg polled even worse with that age bracket at only 2%.

According to the Pew Research Center, millennials (ages 24-39) and eligible Gen Z voters (ages 18-23) make up around 37% of the electorate for the 2020 election, and Buttigieg’s attempts to secure votes from these generations fell flat.

Buttigieg also never was able to stand out in the debates. He was relegated to a background character while other bigger personalities took the forefront. USA Today’s Sally Kohn wrote that he was “undazzling in the debates and his political rollouts.” No matter how great of a platform you have, if you can’t stir up some support and conjure up a significant following, the only place you’ll be going is back home.

On the positive side, Buttigieg brought a service record and a mayoral stint to the table. Unfortunately for him, mayor of a city and president of a country are completely different positions, and recent events revoked confidence in Buttigieg’s ability to operate under strenuous conditions.

The Independent, a British news website, cited a situation in South Bend where a white police officer shot and killed a black man. The Independent noted that Buttigieg seemed “rattled” when a black protester commented on his presidential bid and expectancy for votes from the black population. Buttigieg responded with “I’m not asking for your vote.” 

To make matters worse, Buttigieg clammed up when people began to harass him, calling him a liar and saying they did not trust him. He struggled to take back control of the situation. 

Is this the guy Democrats wanted to give their nomination to? Ultimately, the voters decided no. If Buttigieg couldn’t operate under pressure when he is in charge of a city, then governing an entire nation seemed like an enormous challenge for a man with no national or even statewide political experience. Donald Trump even admitted to Reuters that the job was far harder than he thought. 

Buttigieg may never admit what ultimately caused the demise of his campaign. But it seemed clear from the start that someone who couldn’t handle protestors in his own city would not handle the weight of the presidency. He cracked under pressure, and that ended his campaign.

Sobonsky is an opinion writer. Follow her on Twitter.