Pete Buttigieg to guest host “Jimmy Kimmel Live”
Former South Bend mayor says he wants to "have some fun" before turning to the next chapter in his life
Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg will host Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday, the former South Bend mayor announced on Monday’s Today Show.
“We’re lining up a great slate of guests,” Buttigieg said. “Sir Patrick Stewart is coming on, so we are very excited about that.”
People will likely be watching closely to see how Buttigieg does in delivering the opening monologue for the program.
“Hopefully some funnier minds than mine will be doing some writing for that,” he said. “But I think it is going to be fun.”
Buttigieg, the first viable openly gay person to seek the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, performed well in the early states, narrowly winning the Iowa caucus and placing second in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary.
But he was unable to grow his coalition much beyond older voters and affluent white liberals when it came to competing in more diverse states like Nevada and South Carolina.
“I’m proud of the campaign we ran,” Buttigieg told Today‘s Craig Melvin. “But by the time we’d run our fourth race, it was clear the numbers weren’t there.”
Last Sunday, Buttigieg dropped out of the presidential campaign and endorsed Democratic frontrunner and former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of the Mar. 3 “Super Tuesday” primaries.
Many former Buttigieg supporters appeared to follow his example and threw their support to Biden, who was able to win 10 of 14 states by bringing together a coalition of suburbanites, white women, and African-American voters in the states he won.
Now that he’s dropped out of the presidential race, Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, are going to take some time to travel the country.
“Chasten and I are looking forward to some time away,” he said. “Then we’ll come back, and I’ll make myself useful in new ways. But we’re going to have some fun first.
“The thing about running a presidential campaign is you will have been focused on one thing and one thing only,” Buttigieg added. “It is nice to be able to zoom out and come back at life.”
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