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ZBIGNIEW GRAND BZDAK / CHICAGO
Pete Buttigieg (left), pictured with her husband Chasten, was one of Biden’s rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.
US President-elect Joe Biden has chosen former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg to head the transportation department.
Buttigieg, one of Biden’s rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, was a prominent star of the primaries, sharing the victory in the nation’s first caucus with Bernie Sanders. He called off his campaign before Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden.
Biden has compared Buttigieg, 38, to his late son, Beau.
“For me it is the highest compliment I can give to any man or woman. And like Beau, he has a spine like a ramrod, ”Biden said during the March event, while Buttigieg was behind him, bowing his head. “I promise you, throughout your life, you will end up seeing a lot more of Pete than me.”
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Buttigieg is the former mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city, serving from 2012 to 2010. He also served a seven-month deployment as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan. With his presidential campaign, he became the first openly gay man to become, even briefly, a prominent presidential candidate. She has been married to her husband, Chasten, since 2018.
LGBTQ rights groups immediately spoke out praising Biden’s selection of Buttigieg.
“Pete’s nomination is a new milestone in a decades-long effort to ensure that LGBTQ people are represented throughout our government, and its impact will reverberate far beyond the department he will lead,” said Annise Parker, president and CEO of LGBTQ Victory Institute. .
“It moves our nation away from a troubled legacy of excluding LGBTQ people from government positions and brings us closer to the president-elect vision of a government that reflects America.
BRIAN CASSELLA / CHICAGO GRAND
As head of the transportation department, Buttigieg will oversee the country’s road, airplane, train and public transportation system.
The Department of Transportation helps oversee the nation’s highway system, airplanes, trains, and public transportation, and is poised to play a key role early in the incoming administration.
Biden has pledged to spend billions on major infrastructure improvements and modernization initiatives that can help the United States combat climate change. He also wants to immediately demand the use of masks on airplanes and public transport systems to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Infrastructure spending can be a bipartisan issue, and President Donald Trump spent years promising to push a major bill through Congress that never materialized. Instead, his administration moved to loosen carbon emission standards that Biden’s team will likely work to undo as part of the broader commitment to slow global warming.
The most frequently mentioned first election to head the Transportation Department, President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel drew strong pushback from leading progressive activists.
Emanuel, also a former congressman, helped oversee the Obama administration’s distribution of tens of billions of dollars in transportation spending as part of a massive stimulus bill passed after the financial crisis, but now it seems unlikely. take a position in the Biden administration.
His chances were dashed after civil rights and progressive leaders criticized Emanuel’s handling of high-profile police who shot and killed Laquan McDonald, a black teenager killed by a white officer, during his time as mayor of Chicago. .
