Democratic Primaries
In reply to the discussion: 'He's white, male and gay': Buttigieg hits obstacles with black voters [View all]Celerity
(42,666 posts)No he did not. He entered via an exploratory committee on January 23rd (he was one of only seven (and only 4 of those were 'major' ones) who did an exploratory committee and started campaigning before his official full announcement. Castro, Gillibrand, Messam, Warren, Gravel (although his only lasted 2 and a half weeks), and Williamson were the others. He started to have a lot of media coverage in February, and really took off after his first CNN Townhall in early March.
Biden also disproves this (late entry) as valid reason, but (as Biden has massive name recognition so that helps a late entry) many others made their initial FCC filing after Buttigieg (14, plus 3 more who came in at almost the same time):
Bennet, Biden, Bullock, Booker, Hickenlooper, Inslee, Gravel, Klobuchar, Messam, Moulton, Ryan, Beto, Sanders (officially, but we all know he was running since the day after the 2016 election), and Swalwell all made their first initial FCC filings after Pete. Harris 2 days before him, and Gillibrand (8 days before Pete) and Gabbard (12 days before Pete) also came in and started campaigning around the same time.
Only Delaney (the very first Democratic candidate to file officially, July 28th, 2018, so almost 6 months before), Warren (24 days before Pete), Castro (41 days before Pete), Yang (77 days before Pete), and Williamson (68 days before Pete) were running officially filed campaigns and/or exploratory committees before Buttigieg.
I do grant that many people did not know him, but he has now had massive media coverage.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden