Buttigieg: ‘All of the signs are pointing’ to officially entering 2020 race

Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that signs are “pointing in the right direction” for him to officially enter the 2020 presidential race as a Democratic candidate roughly two months after he launched an exploratory committee.

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said on “Fox News Sunday” that he rolled out the exploratory committee “to see what the response would be to the idea of a Midwestern, millennial mayor entering the conversation for president” in terms of fundraising and interest among early primary states. 

{mosads}”Now we’re seeing all of those things, but because I’m not highly famous and I’m not personally wealthy, it takes a little bit to get the organization in place for a launch,” he added.

“All of the signs are pointing in the right direction and when we do come out it’s going to be a big one.”

.@PeteButtigieg on timetable for formally announcing: "All of the signs are pointing in the right direction. And when we do come out, it’s going to be a big one." #FNS pic.twitter.com/gpIahqNjVj

— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) March 17, 2019

Buttigieg, who previously served in the Navy and is the only openly gay candidate currently running for president, was first elected mayor in 2011 at age 29. He became the youngest person to serve as the mayor of a city with a population of more than 100,000 when he took office in 2012, and he won a second term in 2015.

Buttigieg would join an increasingly crowded field of presidential hopefuls, including former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), among others.

Asked Sunday why he’s in “such a hurry” to run for president at 37, Buttigieg described it as an “unusual moment” in the country’s history.

“There’s something happening right now that calls for something completely different than what we’ve been seeing,” he said. “Generationally different, regionally different, somebody with a different life story and a different background.

“And to the surprise of many, including myself, this moment could be the only moment over the last 100 years or the next 100 years where it’s appropriate for somebody like me to be in this conversation.”