Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday said there’s an effort underway to boost diversity among his staff, as he works to improve his base of support among African-American voters.
“We are building a campaign team rapidly, as we speak, and we are building a team that will reflect the diversity both of the country and party that we seek to represent, and of the administration that I seek to serve and I consider it extremely important,” Mr. Buttigieg said at a candidate forum at the NAACP’s annual convention in Detroit.
Asked how long the building would take, Mr. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said: “It’s underway right now, and we will publish numbers that will demonstrate the diversity of our team.”
Mr. Buttigieg paced the 2020 Democratic presidential field in fundraising in the second quarter of 2019, pulling in nearly $25 million.
But he has struggled to gain broad support among African-American voters in public polling on the race. He recently took a break from the campaign trail to try to deal with the fallout of a fatal shooting of a black man at the hands of a white police officer in South Bend.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.