Mayor Pete Buttigieg officiates a hometown wedding on day off from the campaign trail
"Obviously there's only one answer to that question," the South Bend mayor said.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a rising 2020 hopeful, officiated a couple's wedding on a day off from the campaign trail in his home town of South Bend, Indiana.
"I never would have guessed how this morning would begin for me," he wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. "I ran into a young couple coming out of the elevator, saying I was just the person they were there to see ... Mary and Gabe explained that she was on her way to the hospital for a 9:00 a.m. appointment for a c-section. And they were hoping they could be married before she delivered."
The 37-year-old mayor shared in the post that while "unstructured time is rare especially these days," after running into the couple in the hallway and hearing their request only 45 minutes before their appointment, he said, "Obviously there's only one answer to that question."
"I corralled a few staff members as they were trickling into the office, to serve as witnesses, and filled out the paperwork," he continued. "Their rings weren't ready, so one of my colleagues found a ribbon that would do the trick."
The impromptu ceremony for the couple, Gabe and Mary, ended with some time to spare to get to the hospital and later Monday, they shared a photo of South Bend's newest resident, Jade Katherine Jones, with their mayor.
"It's moments like this that I'll miss when my term as mayor comes to an end," Buttigieg wrote.
The wedding comes on the heels of Buttigieg announcing a massive fundraising haul: his presidential exploratory committee raised over $7 million in the first quarter of 2019.
"This is just a preliminary analysis, but our team’s initial report shows we raised over $7 million dollars in Q1 of this year.," Buttigieg wrote on Twitter. "We (you) are out-performing expectations at every turn. I'll have a more complete analysis later."
Two other presidential contenders, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, raised nearly the same amount in the first 24 hours of their official campaign launches, but Buttigieg's feat reflects his surging national prominence as a long shot White House hopeful, only three months after announcing his exploratory committee. His announcement was one of the first among the crowded 2020 field.
But Buttigieg has not formally announced his candidacy, and a recent Quinnipiac poll showed he was tied for fifth with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren among Democrats and voters leaning Democratic, continuing to build hype around his official launch.