Pete Buttigieg talks about unity, health care in east Las Vegas
By Rory Appleton Las Vegas Review-Journal
Pete Buttigieg speaks to the crowd at the East Las Vegas Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. Buttigieg covered topics including healthcare and gun safety. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Keola Longo of Las Vegas shades his eyes while waiting in line for a Pete Buttigieg campaign rally at the East Las Vegas Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. Longo will caucus for the first time this year for Buttigieg. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Pete Buttigieg addresses the audience at a campaign rally at the East Las Vegas Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The presidential candidate spoke and then took questions from the crowd. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
The crowd at a rally for presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg cheers as he discusses his health care policy plans on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Pete Buttigieg speaks to the crowd at the East Las Vegas Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. Buttigieg covered topics including health care, cleaning up Trump’s mess and gun safety. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Dia Andreo, left, hugs Eli Serrato as Pete Buttigieg addresses them directly because of their youth at a campaign rally at the East Las Vegas Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. The 16-year-olds said they believe Buttigieg has not only a vision but the drive to change our country. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Pete Buttigieg speaks to the crowd at the East Las Vegas Community Center on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. Buttigieg covered topics including healthcare and gun safety. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana and 2020 presidential candidate, takes questions from the crowd at a campaign rally on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana and 2020 presidential candidate, takes questions from the crowd at a campaign rally on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg hosted a Tuesday evening rally at the East Las Vegas Community Center, where he told a few hundred people about shared American values that he said will help address health care, climate change, immigration and other key issues while uniting the country after a divisive four years under President Donald Trump.
Buttigieg hit the stage at 5:30 p.m as part of his third trip to Nevada over the last month.
The South Bend, Indiana, mayor also delivered the keynote speech at Battleborn Progress’ Celebrate Progress dinner after the rally. Buttigieg was scheduled to tour a local cannabis cultivation center and dispensary Wednesday morning.
■ American values. Buttigieg spoke about reclaiming traditional American values often associated with the right: Freedom, patriotism and faith. He said progressive Democrats can push for more inclusive, better versions of those values in order to drive policy.
■ Health care reform. As he did during last week’s presidential debate, Buttigieg pushed his own version of a public option health care plan that could, if Americans choose, grow into a single-payer system: Medicare for All Who Want It. He said it would provide cheaper, better insurance while not forcing any Americans off their private health care or raising taxes on the middle class.
■ What he’s learned during his candidacy? Buttigieg said politics matter to most people only in how it can affect their daily lives. He pointed to his own personal life as an example. “My marriage exists because of a single vote on the Supreme Court,” he said. (Buttigieg married his husband, Chasten Glezman, in June 2018 in South Bend as a result of the court’s landmark 2014 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.)
