The Democrats’ Mayor Pete problem

National Journal

The fact that a Harvard-educated Transportation Secretary and former small-city mayor is considered a top presidential prospect is an illustration of the party’s elite turn.

"It should be far too early to be talking about the next presidential election, but between President Biden’s advanced age, his sagging fortunes, and widespread worries about Vice President Kamala Harris’s political competence, the parlor games are already beginning. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who ran an impressive campaign for president as a political underdog, has emerged in the hearts and minds of some Democratic strategists as the favored successor.

"In reality, Buttigieg, the brainy former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, exemplifies the problems that Democrats are facing in the post-Trump political environment. They’ve become the party of intellectuals and technocrats, winning over growing numbers of highly educated, white-collar voters while losing support from their old base of working-class voters of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

"That’s a bad trade-off, even in a Democratic presidential primary. Buttigieg’s own presidential campaign was an illustration of the limitations of relying on affluent professionals as a voting base. Even when he surged during the presidential primary, he always struggled to muster support among the nonwhite and blue-collar voters that typically decide the party nomination." . . .