Buttigieg PAC rolls out slate of endorsements

Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s new political action committee rolled out a slate of endorsements Wednesday focusing on local elected positions.  

The former South Bend, Ind., mayor’s PAC dubbed “Win the Era,” a nod to a phrase often used during the former mayor’s campaign, was unveiled in April and was said to focus on electing down-ballot Democrats. 

“It’s not enough for us to just replace the current president – we must do away with the cruelty and division that have defined the Trump era, and elect leaders at every level of government who will build a nation where every American feels a sense of belonging in our future,” Buttigieg said in a statement.

Buttigieg backed Richmond, Va., Mayor Levar Stoney for his reelection bid and Christine Hunschofsky, the mayor of Parkland, Fla., who led the town through its 2018 school shooting and is running for a seat in the Florida House.

The PAC’s endorsements include those running in House races, such as Gina Ortiz Jones (D-Texas), an Air Force veteran running to replace Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), who announced his retirement last year, in Texas’s 23rd Congressional District. Jones lost to Hurd by less than 1,000 votes in 2018.

The endorsements included two Democratic Senate challengers: Jaime Harrison, a South Carolina Democrat running to unseat Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Cal Cunningham, the Democrat running against Republican Sen. Thom Tillis in North Carolina.

Buttigieg dropped out of the presidential race in March, days before Super Tuesday as the party’s moderate wing consolidated behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee. Buttigieg virtually tied with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Iowa caucuses.