Buttigieg Weighs A Decision With Huge Implications For Democrats: Run For Senate Or President?

Some believe the Democratic Party's next savior is living here, huddled with family, in the relative obscurity of a small city on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Pete Buttigieg has yet to decide if that's a responsibility he wants.

For now, Buttigieg, the 43-year-old former U.S. transportation secretary, is discussing his future with party officials, labor leaders and top strategists. He must decide soon whether he wants to return to the national spotlight as a candidate in Michigan's U.S. Senate race or step aside to instead seek a much bigger role as his party's next presidential nominee.

Prominent allies believe Buttigieg cannot feasibly do both, even as others raise the comparison to Barack Obama, who was elected president just four years after becoming a U.S. senator.

"I don't think you can run for Senate in 2026 and run for president in 2028 ... I would think that would be very, very hard," said Obama's former chief strategist David Axelrod, who met briefly with Buttigieg last week ahead of a joint appearance at the University of Chicago.