Biden wants to make shooting star Pete Buttigieg Minister of Transportation

Biden wants to make shooting star Pete Buttigieg Minister of Transportation

Future US President Joe Biden wants to bring party newcomer Pete Buttigieg, a former Democratic contender for the presidential race, into his cabinet. The 38-year-old is set to become transportation minister, as Biden’s team announced on Tuesday night (local time). According to this, Buttigieg, if confirmed for the position, would be the first openly gay federal minister in the country’s history.

Buttigieg caused a sensation in the primary of the presidential race for the Democrats. The Democrat, who months before had been a great unknown at the national level, worked his way to the top of the party’s internal aspirants in the polls and gained enormously in profile and awareness during his election campaign. After retiring from the race, he supported Biden’s candidacy.

For eight years, until the end of 2019, Buttigieg was mayor of South Bend, a city of 100,000 inhabitants in the US state of Indiana. He studied at renowned universities and worked as a management consultant at McKinsey before turning to politics. Buttigieg was also in the Navy. In 2014, he took a break from his mayoral job for a seven-month assignment in Afghanistan.

So far, the Democrat has no political experience at the federal level. This could be charged in the Senate, which must confirm it for the position. Buttigieg had already found reservations about his age and his limited political experience in the presidential race; answered them easily.

CNN and the Washington Post also reported Tuesday, citing unidentified sources, that Biden had chosen former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to the Department of Energy. Initially there was no official confirmation. (sda / dpa)