Democratic 2020 hopeful Pete Buttigieg is — by every measure — having an ascendant moment as a candidate for president.
Why it matters: The South Bend, Ind. mayor is generating more social media interest on a per article basis than any of his rivals, according to data from social media analytics company Newswhip. And that's just one of many signs of intensifying interest in "Mayor Pete."
By the numbers:
Buttigieg, 37, has made a name for himself with his unconventional background — he's an openly gay, Episcopalian, Navy veteran, Rhodes scholar millennial who speaks 8 languages.
“If you were to design the exact opposite of Donald Trump, it would be Pete Buttigieg.”— Christopher Massicotte, partner at DSPolitical
The stories about him that have generated the most interest include:
In the last week, Buttigieg has gotten two other pieces of news that point to his rise as a candidate:
The bottom line: It remains to be seen how much of the Buttigieg interest is a flavor-of-the-month sugar rush vs. momentum that continues to build and can sustain itself for a year and a half.
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Pete Buttigieg has raised more than $7 million since launching a presidential exploratory committee in January, the potential candidate announced Monday morning.
Why it matters: Buttigieg started with low name recognition and earned more organic search interest than initial media visibility, but reached as high as 4th in a recent nationwide poll.
"This is just a preliminary analysis, but our team’s initial report shows we raised over $7 million dollars in Q1 of this year. We (you) are out-performing expectations at every turn. I'll have a more complete analysis later, but until then: a big thank you to all our supporters."— Mayor Pete, in a tweet
Over the past week:
What's next: Expect more campaigns to announce their fundraising tallies today, since 2019's first quarter of fundraising ended yesterday.
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