Pete Buttigieg Hints He's Eyeing a Presidential Run With Latest Career Move

Former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is set to announce on Thursday that he won't run for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat in the next election cycle, a move analysts say likely paves the way for a presidential run in 2028.

Buttigieg recently acknowledged he had been "looking" at a Senate campaign and even met with Senate Minority Chuck Schumer to discuss the possibility. However, allies of his told Politico that he ended up making the decision after concluding it would be extremely difficult to run consecutive campaigns in 2026 and 2028.

The race for Michigan's seat will likely be a high profile one as the incumbent, Democrat Gary Peters, announced in January that he won't be seeking re-election. The decision took colleagues and pundits by surprise, as he is 66-years-old and could potentially run again.

Republicans consider it an opportunity after coming close to flipping the state's other seat last November, when Mike Rogers lost against Democrat Elisa Slotkin by less than 0.4 percentage points.

Buttigieg moved to Traverse City, Michigan, with his family after working in former President Joe Biden's cabinet. He also rejected running for governor despite polling indicating he would have had a dominant position in the primaries had he made the decision.

"Pete was an A-list recruit and would have been a formidable candidate for the Senate had he chosen to run. But had he won in '26, it would almost certainly have taken him out of the conversation for '28. This certainly keeps that option open. Beyond that, I have a sense that he wanted to spend more time with his family, and with people in communities like his, where the conversations and concerns are so different than the ones you hear in the echo chamber of Washington," said longtime Democratic operative David Axelrod, a mentor to Buttigieg, Politico reported.

Early polling ahead of 2028 shows Buttigieg second among Democrats, only trailing former Vice President Kamala Harris, who nonetheless is considering whether to run for governor of California. Buttigieg was also considered to be Harris' choice for vice president in the 2024 election, but the post ended up going to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.