Mayor Pete holds town hall in Salt Lake City
Story by Paul Florence
Pete Buttigieg came to Salt Lake City on February 17, 2020 for his presidential run. The crowd of more than 4,500 people at the event caused a last-minute venue change to the Union Events Center.
A surprising number of young people, our age or a bit older, attended the event. During his speech, Pete talked about how important the youth vote was to him. This is important because he hasn’t been successful with getting youth votes so far in his campaign. Despite the fact that he would be the youngest U.S. president in history if elected, his biggest base is voters age 65 and older.
Many youth are concerned with their healthcare, and some in the crowd wanted to know what he is going to do about it in his plan. Buttigieg advocated “Medicaid for all who wanted it” during his campaign run. He said in his talk that he talked to 10-12 year olds who were worried they wouldn’t have access to the insulin they needed to live. Pete told these youth about how he would try to improve access to life saving medicines.
The crowd was also made up of a large number of veterans. As a war vet, Mayor Pete has gathered a large amount of veteran supporters by campaigning to stop unnecessary war. Many of the veterans and Pete supporters there were what Pete likes to call “future former Republicans.” This means that Pete’s ideas and experience as a fellow war veteran caused them to change from being on the Republican side.
“I was a registered Republican from 1998 until the rise of President Trump, and I don’t agree with the values that he’s put out,” Marine veteran Matt Coombs said. Coombs is Buttegieg supporter who attended the town hall with his daughter. “I want my daughter to grow up in an America that is full of hope and promise, and Pete is the candidate. He has that Kennedy-esque vibe. Somebody who believes there’s hope for a brighter future,” Coombs said.
“I used to be most interested in the economy,” another veteran interviewed said, “but my passion has started going more toward education and healthcare. Just making sure we’re better as a society versus just better economically. Betterment of our welfare will stimulate the economy as well.”
Buttigieg believes his experience as a mayor could help him in his campaign because he says he knows how to unite divided people. “You’ll never hear of a city shutting down their government because the two parties can’t solve a problem,” Buttigieg said in his speech. “You just have to solve the problem. I want Washington to start working a little more like our best cities and towns, not the other way around.” When his opponents talk about his lack of experience holding national offices, he thinks the lack of “marinating in Washington” is a positive.
Nowadays, we often complain about Presidents making policies for the present, but Pete said that “We need to look to the future in order to govern in times like these.”
He also talked about his environmental plan to combat climate change which consisted of doubling renewable energy by 2025, rejoining the Paris Agreement, and developing a carbon-neutral plan that will cost in the trillions, but doesn’t cost as much as the $25 trillion that Bernie Sander’s plan does. Buttigieg stressed the importance of unity in solving the problem of climate change by saying “we’re only gonna get it done if we do it together” and inviting “everyone into the solution.”
Pete has stronger support than previously thought here in Salt Lake City, where he has volunteers on the ground who will try to help him get more votes before Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
Update on March 1: Even though Pete Buttigieg has now suspended his presidential campaign, it was important because he brought a unique voice to the election conversation, representing members of the LGBTQ+ community, and attracting veterans to the Democratic Party based on his military experience, and more conservative democrats, who then supported Biden as the Democratic front-runner.
