Serious observers of American presidential politics will not have missed the rapid rise to national prominence of Pete Buttigieg, the thirty-eight-year-old former mayor of the small Midwestern city of South Bend, Indiana. Within a year of announcing his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, Buttigieg had made history as, in his words, ‘the first openly gay candidate to win a state in a presidential nominating contest – doing so as the first out elected official to even make the attempt’.

In addition to accomplishing this remarkable feat, Buttigieg offers arguably the most thoughtful and perceptive analysis of the current American political terrain of any leading political figure. Having arrived on the presidential scene as a trailblazer, Buttigieg moved to become a forceful advocate for the Biden/Harris election campaign, often venturing into the hostile media territory of Fox News to argue the case against re-electing President Donald Trump.