Former Harry Reid Staffer Jabs Buttigieg: ‘Sneaky Pete’ Only Got 8,500 Votes in His Last Election

Pete Buttigieg
AP Photo/Nati Harnik
Charlie Spiering

Democrats continue ripping Mayor Pete Buttigieg for only earning 8,500 votes in his last campaign for re-election as the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana — which has a population of roughly 100,000 people.

Former Deputy Chief of Staff to Sen. Harry Reid Adam Jentleson mocked Buttigieg on Friday after the mayor released a new ad against giving tuition-free college education for children of wealthy parents.

“A guy who received a total of 8,500 votes in his last election now wants to be POTUS because he believes in his own ambition above all else,” he wrote on Twitter.

Jentleson called Buttigieg “Sneaky Pete” for throwing ideas embraced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders “under the bus” for a position that was more “consultant-tested.”

The attack against Buttigieg’s weak voter draw was also deployed by Democratic strategic Alexis Grenell in April as proof that sexism was “alive and well in 2020.”

“When we see smart, specific, incredibly qualified women articulating a vision, somehow that is less sexy than a mayor from a town that is barely 100,000 people, who won re-election with 8,500 votes and who thinks that policy is minutia,” she said in an appearance on CNN.

Buttigieg frequently cites his election in a midwestern city within the red state of Indiana as proof he can appeal to all voters.

But South Bend is overwhelmingly Democrat, thus explaining the low voting numbers. The last time the city elected a Republican mayor was in 1964.

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