Buttigieg Weighs Whether to Run for President or Senate

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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Some believe the Democratic Party’s next savior is living here, huddled with family, in the relative obscurity of a small city on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Pete Buttigieg has yet to decide if that’s a responsibility he wants.

For now, Buttigieg, the 43-year-old former U.S. transportation secretary, is discussing his future with party officials, labor leaders and top strategists. He must decide soon whether he wants to return to the national spotlight as a candidate in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race or step aside to instead seek a much bigger role as his party’s next presidential nominee.

Prominent allies believe Buttigieg cannot feasibly do both, even as others raise the comparison to Barack Obama, who was elected president just four years after becoming a U.S. senator.

Buttigieg and his family live in Traverse City, known for its cherries. (Gary Ennis/Getty Images)

“I don’t think you can run for Senate in 2026 and run for president in 2028. … I would think that would be very, very hard,” said Obama’s former chief strategist David Axelrod, who met briefly with Buttigieg last week ahead of a joint appearance at the University of Chicago.

The Democratic Party may be hurting more at this moment than it was two decades ago, when voters turned to that first-term senator from Illinois over more established candidates to lead their comeback from the Bush years. Indeed, Democrats, demoralized and afraid, are crying out for strong new leadership with President Donald Trump and his allies, notably Elon Musk, racing to transform Washington while gutting key federal agencies.

Buttigieg has the tools to lead his party on a national scale if he wants. More than four years after the little-known mayor outperformed far more experienced Democrats in the Iowa presidential caucuses, he remains one of the party’s best communicators, boasting a massive social media following, a national donor network and a Midwestern charm he displays in Fox News Channel interviews and smaller settings alike.

More than anything, allies sa…