Mayor Pete Buttigieg to Headline 2018 McGovern Day Banquet
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The South Dakota Democratic Party announced today that Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will be the keynote speaker at its annual McGovern Day Banquet Dinner, set to begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 28 at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel in Sioux Falls.
“I’m looking forward to joining the South Dakota Democratic Party for their annual McGovern Day banquet,” Buttigieg said. “For the national Democratic Party to be strong, we need to be strong in states like South Dakota. There are great Democratic candidates for governor, Congress, and state legislature running in South Dakota this year, and I look forward to working with them to rebuild the Democratic Party at every level.”
“We’re thrilled to announce that Mayor Buttigieg will be joining us at McGovern Day,” said Ann Tornberg, South Dakota Democratic Party Chair. “He is a rising star in the Democratic Party, who impressed many – including me – in his run to be Democratic National Committee Chair. As an elected Democrat in a traditionally ‘red’ Midwest state, and war veteran, he will bring a very relevant and insightful message to Democrats in South Dakota. Given the strong enthusiasm we’re seeing among Democrats in our state, we’re confident this year’s event will be the biggest McGovern Day yet, and will help us translate that enthusiasm into Democratic victories this fall.”
Gubernatorial candidate State Senator Billie Sutton and U.S. House candidate Tim Bjorkman will also speak at the dinner.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the chief executive of the City of South Bend. The city’s thirty-second mayor, he was sworn into office on January 1, 2012. As mayor, Buttigieg is responsible for the city workforce of over 1,000 employees and an annual budget over $300 million.
Under his leadership, South Bend has addressed its toughest challenges – seeing positive economic and population growth for the first time in decades and reimagining its role in the global economy with the development of key corridors.
A Rhodes Scholar, Buttigieg studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford and holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Literature from Harvard. Buttigieg was born in South Bend and grew up in the Northwest Side and North Shore Triangle neighborhoods. He attended St. Joseph High School in South Bend.
In 2017, he ran for Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair, earning national praise for his “rhetorical gift, thanks to his red-state upbringing” and ability to “[sell] Democratic policy through a less partisan lens.”
He is the chair of the recently formed taskforce on “Automation and its Impacts on America’s Cities” for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. He is past President of the Indiana Urban Mayors Caucus and the Northern Indiana Mayors Roundtable, and serves on the advisory boards of the Truman National Security Project and the United States Conference of Mayors. In 2015, he received the New Frontier Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the Harvard University Institute of Politics, and in 2016 he won the U.S. Department of Transportation Mayors’ Challenge Pedestrian and Bicycle Awards for the City’s work on Smart Streets.
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