Buttigieg ran in the mainstream or moderate wing in the primary along with former Vice President
Joe Biden and Senator
Kamala Harris. Buttigieg and fellow moderates often criticized Senator
Bernie Sanders and former Mayor
Michael Bloomberg during the primary debates.
Abortion Buttigieg is
pro-choice; as such, he supports repealing the
Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal funding for abortion services in all but the most extreme circumstances. In 2018, as mayor, Buttigieg vetoed a South Bend Common Council rezoning decision that would have allowed an
anti-abortion center to open next door to the abortion clinic, Whole Women's Health Alliance. The Women's Care Center eventually found an alternative location in South Bend. Even though the South Bend Common Council supported the rezoning exception, Buttigieg said, "I don’t think it would be responsible to situate two groups literally right next to each other ... that have diametrically opposed views on the most divisive social issue of our time." He also expressed his concern that such a close proximity between their buildings would simply conduce to the harassment of the one side by the other. In May 2019, after the
Alabama Legislature outlawed virtually all abortion services in the state by passing the
Human Life Protection Act, Buttigieg said that it was "ignoring science, criminalizing abortion, and punishing women."
Climate change Buttigieg released a plan to
combat climate change that rests on the following three pillars: building a clean economy through the creation of
clean energy jobs; improving resilience by investing in disaster relief and prevention; and building the United States' role on the international stage in the urgent fight against climate change. Further, his proposal sets the aggressive benchmarks of doubling clean electricity in the U.S. by 2025, zero emissions in electricity generation by 2035, net-zero emissions from industrial vehicles by 2040, and a net-zero emissions by 2050. Buttigieg approves of the
Green New Deal proposed by House Democrats. He also supports a
carbon tax and dividend policy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Criminal justice Buttigieg supports the abolition of the
death penalty. He has also called for restoring voting rights to former felons and moving toward reversing criminal sentences for minor drug-related offenses. He supports the "safe, regulated, and
legal sale of marijuana." In 2019, Buttigieg professed himself "troubled" by former President Obama's decision to commute the sentence of
Chelsea Manning, the
Iraq War whistleblower, days before leaving office in 2017; Buttigieg also gave a mixed evaluation of
Edward Snowden's disclosure of classified information, saying that "we've learned things about abuses and that one way or another that needed to come out" but that "the way for that to come out is through Congressional oversight, not through a breach of classified information." In August 2019, Buttigieg released a plan to decriminalize drug addiction and mental illness, favoring diversionary programs over incarceration.
Economy and commerce Buttigieg has frequently pointed to
automation as the chief cause of the great loss of manufacturing jobs nationwide. Buttigieg has spent time talking with labor workers and has emphasized the need for democratic leaders to be in contact with
labor unions. As a self-proclaimed
democratic capitalist, Buttigieg supports a constitutional amendment to protect democracy from the undue and corruptive influence of money in politics. He is receptive to the possibility of antitrust actions against large technology companies but more focused on privacy and data security concerns.
Elections Buttigieg favors the abolition of the
Electoral College. He is on record saying that he supports reinstating convicted felons' right to vote once they are released, but not before.
Foreign policy Buttigieg has said that he believes the post-
9/11 invasion of Afghanistan was justified, Buttigieg is a committed supporter of
Israel. However, he notably disapproves of former Israeli prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's zeal for annexing Jewish settlements in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank. In January 2019, following
Juan Guaidó's self-declaration as interim
president of Venezuela, Buttigieg told
HuffPost that as a supporter of free and fair elections, he is amenable to potential sanctions but not a military intervention imposed on the country. On June 11, 2019, Buttigieg said: "We will remain open to working with a regime like the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia for the benefit of the American people. But we can no longer sell out our deepest values for the sake of fossil fuel access and lucrative business deals."
Health care At the start of his campaign, Buttigieg advocated for a single-payer healthcare system. Buttigieg later promoted "Medicare for All Who Want It", a plan that would implement a
public option for Medicare, while allowing private health insurance for anyone who wanted to purchase it. In August 2019, Buttigieg released a $300 billion plan to expand mental health care services and fight addiction.
Immigration Buttigieg supports
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and has rebuked the Trump administration's deportation policies. He defended a resident of
Granger, Indiana, who was deported after living in the U.S. for 17 years despite having regularly checked in with
ICE and applied for a green card. Buttigieg has said that Trump has been reckless in sending American troops to the southern border, and that it is a measure of last resort.
Judicial issues Buttigieg has said that he believes the
Supreme Court needs structural reform, emphasizing depoliticization and suggesting that
the court be expanded to 15 members, five of whom can only be seated by unanimous consensus of the other ten.
Racial equality In May 2019, Buttigieg warned that President
Donald Trump and his administration were using
white identity politics, which he identified as the most divisive form of identity politics. In July 2019 Buttigieg shared his Douglass Plan, named for
abolitionist Frederick Douglass, to address systemic racism in America. Announcing it at a Chicago meeting of
Jesse Jackson’s
Rainbow/PUSH civil rights organization, Buttigieg compared the plan's scope to that of the U.S.'s
Marshall Plan, which invested funds in war-torn Europe after
World War II, and said it would address "opportunity for minority businesses, strengthening voting rights, and reforming the criminal justice system." The initiative allocates $10 billion to
African-American entrepreneurship over five years, grants $25 billion to
historically black colleges, legalizes marijuana, expunges records of drug convictions, halves the federal prison population, and passes a federal New Voting Rights Act designed to increase voting access.
The Intercept reported that in a press release about the plan, the campaign had listed three prominent members of the South Carolina black community, none of whom had endorsed Buttigieg and only one of whom had endorsed the plan. He opposes the ban on transgender people participating in the military that was enacted by Trump. "One thing we could do ... would be to make it, if not legally obligatory, then certainly a social norm that anybody after they're 18 years old spends a year in national service", he said. The initiative prioritizes volunteering in predominantly minority communities and rural areas by tripling programs to 250,000 people at first, then expanding to one million by 2026. ==Endorsements==