Buttigieg touts national service, navigates 'brutal' Q&A at rally in the park

DOVER, N.H. — South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg touted his national service plan before several hundred supporters at a park in downtown Dover, New Hampshire on Friday morning. The plan, introduced last week during a campaign trip to Iowa, would create a million "service opportunities" by 2026 in fighting climate change, caring for the elderly and treating mental health and addiction.

Buttigieg, who served with the Navy Reserves and was deployed to Afghanistan, highlighted the opportunity for "radically different" people — "racially, economically, regionally, politically" — to come together through national service. "Not only would such good work get done, but we'd get to know each other better," he said.

The South Bend Mayor was introduced by State Representative Matt Wilhelm, who endorsed Buttigieg last week because of his national service plan and put a spotlight on the issue from the start of the event. Wilhelm, a veteran of the City Year AmeriCorps program and a New Hampshire native, called his experience "really transformative" and told voters he made the decision to endorse Buttigieg on the Fourth of July. "It felt like my patriotic duty," he said.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg spoke at Henry Law Park in downtown Dover, New Hampshire next to the Children's Museum of New Hampshire before a crowd of several hundred supporters.

While some voters expressed interest in the national service plan after the event, most emphasized not his policies, but his performance at the packed outdoor amphitheater. They walked away raving about his ability to think on his feet and answer at times "brutal" questions during a twenty-five minute question-and-answer session. 

One question, for example, called Buttigieg's plan to expand the size of the Supreme Court to 15 justices "profoundly undemocratic." Buttigieg responded that his Supreme Court reform program would require the first ten justices to choose the remaining five nominees by unanimous agreement, a proposal that caught his attention from the Yale Law Journal. "The crucial thing is not the number, it's the design," he said.

Buttigieg then connected his position on the Supreme Court to his support for D.C. statehood and explained that "opening Americans' imaginations" was a priority of his campaign. "For some reason, constitutional reforms kind of stopped in the '70s," he said. "Now would be a great season for [constitutional reforms]."

Another question referenced Buttigieg's so-called Douglass Plan to tackle systemic racism and asked how to respond to "undecided voters who suggest that you are pandering the black vote." Buttigieg quickly responded that the concerns of black voters deserve to be addressed. "This is not just politics, this is the right thing to do," he said.

Buttigieg followed his fourteen-minute stump speech with a twenty-five minute question-and-answer session. State Representative Matt Wilhelm read the questions, which were submitted by voters at the event.

The question-and-answer session, which voters described as a "bold move" that "blew me away," went a long way towards reinforcing the popular image of Buttigieg as a Harvard-educated wunderkind. It was particularly necessary after at least one voter expressed disappointment in Buttigieg's fourteen-minute stump speech.

Ben Longchamp, 20, of Atkinson, New Hampshire said he came to the rally because Buttigieg was "in my top three" and referenced the South Bend Mayor's viral performance of George Gerswin's Rhapsody in Blue on piano and his well-noted ability to read Norwegian. "That's amazing," he said. "Having an intelligent candidate is a great thing."

But "the first twenty minutes" of the event were underwhelming for Longchamp, who called the list of issues that Buttigieg ticked through during his speech "very much applause lines" and "sparse on actual policies." While Longchamp said he was "looking for somebody younger as a young person" and therefore ruled out the race's foremost policy wonk in Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, he said he would have to look for more information about Buttigieg's policies when he got home. "I do like to get into the specifics," he said.

Despite the lack of specifics in Buttigieg's speech, the South Bend Mayor did organize his remarks around the three big themes of his campaign: freedom, security and democracy. His call for "a new conversation about freedom," which would include health care, reproductive rights and LGBT rights, led off the speech. "Freedom isn't just about freedom from, it's about freedom to," he said.

Buttigieg highlighted three themes of his campaign: freedom, security and democracy. He also mentioned a fourth, faith, and criticized the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids scheduled for Sunday.

After briefly listing his priorities in the areas of security and democracy, Buttigieg added that he also wanted to change the terms of debate about a fourth theme, faith. He commented on the reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids scheduled by the Trump administration for Sunday and said "Americans of faith" have a choice. "That choice could not be made more stark by what's going to happen tomorrow," he said.

Besides his opposition to the planned raids on Sunday, Buttigieg mostly steered away from invoking President Donald Trump, something that he acknowledged as part of a strategy later in the speech. He said Democrats have to "navigate a trap" with Trump and promised to "name the lie and tell the truth." His rationale won a round of applause and a loud cheer from the audience. "The less we're talking about him, the more we're talking about you," he said.

This work is made possible by the Russell H. Bostert Memorial Fellowship at Williams College.