Image credit: Gage Skidmore

South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg announced the end of his run for president over the weekend, further narrowing down the list of Democratic presidential candidates Americans have to choose from.

Buttigieg made history as the first openly gay candidate to jump into the Democratic presidential race. He was also one of the youngest candidate3s to run at only 38 years old. Aside from being a mayor and a veteran, Buttigieg is a graduate of both Harvard and Oxford, a Rhodes scholar, and a polyglot who can speak English, French, Spanish, Italian, Maltese, and Norwegian, to name a few languages. He can also play the piano and the guitar.

There have been several highlights to the Buttigieg campaign, one of which was becoming the first out gay politician to take part in a presidential debate. He accomplished this by reaching the 65,000 donor goal required by the Democratic Party for a candidate to participate in official debates. Another highlight was him narrowly beating out Bernie Sanders during the Iowa caucus.

However, his campaign faced some difficulties, especially with Black voters and queer and trans voters. The biggest blow to his campaign was his loss in the South Carolina primary, which really showed his lack of support among Black voters.

Buttigieg drew attention early on during a CNN Town Hall where he compared himself to the current president and vice president of the United States, saying that he has more government experience, more executive government experience, and military experience.

Last month, Buttigieg also gained attention for his looks after photos of him with a beard started circulating on the internet and drew attention from netizens. The hashtag #BeardedButtigieg had comments like “Make Pete Bearded Again!” and a Twitter user saying that it was tome to “bring the beard back to the Oval Office.”

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