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Reuters Pete Buttigieg speaks during the second night of the first Democratic presidential candidates debate in Miami on June 27, 2019.
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg scored endorsements from three former Obama administration officials, his campaign said Thursday, including from the ex-president’s personal aide Reggie Love.
Former Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Austan Goolsbee and former Director of Communications for the White House Office of Health Reform Linda Douglass are also backing the South Bend, Ind., mayor, his campaign announced.
The endorsement from Love, who is African-American, is noteworthy for Buttigieg, who has been putting more energy into wooing black voters after struggling to connect with them so far this campaign season.
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Love cast his support for Buttigieg in generational terms and compared him to the president he served.
“A lot of what is said about Pete echoes what critics said about presidential candidate Barack Obama – too young, too different, maybe another time – but I believe there is never a better time to fight for change than right now,” Love said in a statement.
Buttigieg is currently leading polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, but lags behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren nationally and in South Carolina.
Biden has gotten the lion’s share of endorsements from prominent members of the Democratic Party, according to a tracker from FiveThirtyEight. He’s followed by Warren and Sen. Cory Booker.
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