Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is making an early play for Georgia — one endorsement at a time.
The potential 2028 presidential hopeful’s endorsement of Keisha Lance Bottoms on Wednesday is his latest move expanding his footprint in a battleground state ahead of the next White House race.
“Georgia is such a dynamic state, and I think it’s only going to become more politically important largely because Democrats keep winning there,” Buttigieg said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This is a purple state trending blue, but only if we do the work. Obviously, I want to be part of the solution there and lend my hand to doing the work.”
Buttigieg has already backed U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s reelection bid and stumped for Shawn Harris, the retired U.S. Army officer running for the deep-red seat once held by Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Now he is endorsing Bottoms in a race for governor, saying she will “stand up to the chaos in Washington and the politicians who put their interests over everyday Georgians.”
It’s a race Buttigieg said not only tests whether Democrats can capture Georgia’s top office for the first time in nearly 30 years, but also gauges whether the party’s economic message is winning over middle-of-the-road voters.
“A lot of people who have a habit of voting Republican are giving us a hearing for the first time in a long time because they’re seeing that so many of the promises that were made to them just aren’t coming true,” he said.
‘Focused on the future’
There are plenty of reasons why a potential presidential contender should focus now on Georgia and its 16 electoral votes.
Trump carried Georgia by 5 percentage points in 2016, when neither campaign treated the state as a battleground. Four years later, Joe Biden narrowly flipped it, and Ossoff and Raphael Warnock followed with U.S. Senate runoff victories.
Trump put Georgia back in the Republican column in 2024. But Democrats captured two Public Service Commission races a year later, their first victories in nonfederal statewide contests in nearly two decades.
Buttigieg is one of several potential White House contenders who have made early forays into Georgia. Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently stumped here. And former Vice President Kamala Harris brought her book tour to Atlanta last year.
Back home, Warnock is making early moves to position himself for a presidential campaign.
Buttigieg has done little to discourage speculation about another presidential bid after his unsuccessful 2020 run. Last year, he passed on other campaigns in his adopted home state of Michigan.
When asked directly how Georgians should interpret his increasing presence in the state through the prism of the 2028 contest, he didn’t exactly wave them off.
“Anybody who is focused on the future of the national Democratic Party is, or ought to be, paying a lot of attention to Georgia right now,” he said.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
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