Who Is Pete Buttigieg? Gay Navy Veteran and Mayor of Indiana's South Bend Exploring Candidacy for 2020 Election

Pete Buttigieg, the Democratic mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced he is considering a run for the party's 2020 nomination to be America's next president.

Buttigieg, 37, was first elected city mayor in 2011 and then again in 2015, achieving 80 percent of the vote. He has overseen the economic redevelopment of a struggling South Bend.

He is a U.S. Navy Reserve veteran who took seven months of unpaid leave while mayor to serve a deployment in Afghanistan.

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The Harvard graduate, who was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford in England, is also gay. He came out publicly in 2015.

Buttigieg is married to Chasten Glezman and, according to his campaign website, they live together in the same South Bend neighborhood Buttigieg grew up in.

"The show in Washington right now is exhausting. The corruption, the fighting, the lying, the crisis—it's got to end," Buttigieg says in a video launching an exploratory committee for the presidency.

He also took a swipe at President Donald Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again."

"The reality is, there's no going back, and there's no such thing as 'again' in the real world. We can't look for greatness in the past. Right now, our country needs a fresh start," Buttigieg says.

And Buttigieg, who is set to be one of the youngest candidates running in the Democratic presidential primary if he formally enters the race, made a clear pitch to younger voters.

"I belong to a generation that is stepping forward right now," he says.

"We're the generation that lived through school shootings, that served in the wars after 9/11.

"And we're the generation that stands to be the first to make less than our parents—unless we do something different."

Buttigieg acknowledged his homosexuality in a personal essay for the South Bend Tribune, published in 2015.

"Being gay has had no bearing on my job performance in business, in the military, or in my current role as mayor," he wrote at the time.

"It makes me no better or worse at handling a spreadsheet, a rifle, a committee meeting, or a hiring decision. It doesn't change how residents can best judge my effectiveness in serving our city: by the progress of our neighborhoods, our economy, and our city services.

"We're moving closer to a world in which acceptance is the norm."

If he chooses to run, Buttigieg will enter a wide and diverse field. Among those who have confirmed they are running for the 2020 Democratic nomination are California's Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.