Mayor Pete Buttigieg is fighting for a Democratic presidential nomination against veteran lawmakers like Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) amongst several other qualified Democrats.

Buttigieg announced his presidential campaign  last week and took a slight jab at President Donald Trump during his speech saying that he will “tell a different story than Make America Great Again.”

So who is Buttigieg, and why is he running for the Democratic nomination in such a highly contested field?

Buttigieg is a 37-year-old, two-term mayor of South Bend, Ind., a Harvard graduate and Afghanistan War veteran who can speak seven languages.

He is hoping to win the candidacy as the youngest and first homosexual President in U.S. history. As of right now, Buttigieg winning the nomination is unlikely — he’s gained considerable traction with Democratic hopefuls, accumulating national media attention and recognition.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll, Buttigieg is currently polling at four percent. It may not seem that drastic since his previous polling was at one percent, but he’s received seven million dollars in donations since he embarked on his presidential exploratory committee. Recent polls have had him in third place in Iowa and New Hampshire, behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Sanders.

Buttigieg supports finding a way to fund free public education and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal because he understands the world is facing an environmental emergency. He also supports universal healthcare but agrees with other moderate Democrats that it should be added alongside current government healthcare programs like Obamacare and Medicare.

In terms of taxation, Buttigieg sides with other Democratic leaders by stating that there must be a higher marginal tax rate for wealthy citizens. He doesn’t necessarily believe that it needs to be an all-time high but admits that when it is higher, the economy fares better.

Similar to Senator Warren, Buttigieg does not support the Electoral College by stating, “twice in my lifetime the Electoral College has overruled the American people,” and that “the Electoral College needs to go because it’s made our society less and less democratic.” In an interview with The Intercept, Buttigieg expressed his idea to structure the Supreme Court with 15 justices, with five of them being unanimously selected by the other ten members.

The Mayor from South Bend is not holding back any thoughts he has about the current occupants of the White House. Throughout his exploratory committee, he has already called out Trump and recently, Vice President Mike Pence.

In a recent interview with Vice, Buttigieg addressed Pence’s statement that God wanted him to become vice president by saying that it gives God “very little credit.”  This isn’t the first time that Buttigieg has spoken about Pence, who used to be Governor of Indiana, Buttigieg’s home state.

During a fundraiser, Buttigieg said, “That’s the thing that I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand. That if you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”

Buttigieg’s website can be found here.

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