Campaigning in Coralville, Iowa, Pete Buttigieg has scored the endorsement of Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague. The mayor said he heard Buttigieg speak at an LGBTQ forum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in September, where he “realized this was an opportunity of a lifetime, for someone to be to LGBTQ+, a part of that family, on the national stage.”
Teague told supporters in Coralville that while he had initially supported New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, “my second choice has always been Mayor Pete, and today, publicly, I am endorsing Mayor Pete to be the next President of the United States of America!”
“I don’t know if you know this, but I’m black,” Teague told the audience, to applause. “Mayor Pete, when we look at the history of what he’s done at making sure diversity is equal, not just for people of color, but for women, we’re talking about someone that looks out for the little people, the least of them.”
Teague also told Iowans gathered Saturday morning that the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, appealed to him as a gay man. “I don’t ever really go around announcing. I’m black, because you can see that, and just like you don’t announced that you’re heterosexual, if you might be that, I don’t go around, but I want to say this, I want to say this because it’s important,” Teague said. “When we think about Mayor Pete, and we’re talking about electability, this is a man who can relate to everybody.”
After the forum, Teague likened the feeling of Buttigieg running to the one he felt when Barack Obama ran for president.
“The feeling that Obama, that I had when Obama ran, I can tell you that it’s a similar feeling for someone like me, who is of the LGBTQ+ community, and I’m still living the oppression of being an LGBTQ+, member,” Teague said.
Source: www.cnn.com