Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s husband in Modesto; discusses valley issues
The husband of Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg stopped in Modesto on Saturday morning as part of a listening tour in underrepresented areas.
Chasten Buttigieg met with a group of about 20 community members at a private, invitation-only event at the Central Valley Pride Center in Modesto.
Jessica Self, chairwoman of the Stanislaus Democratic Party and a vice president of the Pride Center, was contacted by Buttigieg’s campaign a couple weeks ago to set up a meet-and-greet with Chasten Buttigieg.
She selected the Pride Center as the location in part because of Pete Buttigieg’s status as the first out-gay candidate to run a major campaign for president. The two men married in June 2018, and Chasten Buttigieg serves as first husband of South Bend, Ind., where his husband is mayor.
Chasten Buttigieg met with the group for about an hour, talking one-on-one with the assembled group and sharing his own personal story. He is one of the few campaign spouses or surrogates for the 2020 presidential campaigns to make a stop in Modesto.
In April, Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke came to Modesto Junior College to discuss climate change. He has since dropped out of the race. During the 2016 Democratic primary, presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders held a campaign rally at Modesto Centre Plaza.
Self said Chasten Buttigieg was interested in hearing people’s experiences with various issues — from homelessness to education and health care to immigration — in the Central Valley.
“He wanted to hear from people in areas that aren’t always visited by candidates and campaigns. The Central Valley is an area that gets overlooked a lot,” said Self, who is also on the executive board of the California Democratic Party. “I think a lot of campaigns are maybe starting to see the value of our area.”
He also shared his personal story to the group. That includes coming out as gay when he was 18 and living with his family in a conservative part of Michigan. He left home shortly after because his family was not accepting of his sexual orientation, and was briefly homeless afterward. He would sleep in his car while attending community college.
A drama teacher by profession, Chasten Buttigieg has been an active surrogate on the campaign trail. He is prolific on Twitter and speaks at events supporting his husband’s campaign.
But most of the roughly hourlong session was spent listening to the others in the room, Self said. “He wasn’t a talker, he was a listener,” she said. “He was not there to preach policy. He didn’t even get into the campaign. What he did was talk about the idea of politics being for every person.
“For too long, politics and politicians have been out of reach to people. A lot of communities are never heard from. He thinks the Central Valley should be included in conversations.”
Other topics of discussion ranged from how the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter has worked to tackle the area’s homeless problem, to DACA (also known as Dreamers) and the services the Pride Center provides to the region’s LGBTQ community.
Among those in attendance was Naramsen Goriel, who was invited by Self as a community organizer in Modesto. He spoke with Chasten Buttigieg about the area’s homeless problem and his support of a housing-first policy.
“It was a really inspiring event that was relevant to our area,” said Goriel, who also recently entered the race to be Modesto’s next mayor. “It means a lot that he came. It means we are relevant and some campaigns are considering our district and town of Modesto as a contributor and strong participant in democracy.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 10:35 PM with the headline "Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s husband in Modesto; discusses valley issues."
