Pete Buttigieg on Thursday responded to an Iowa supporter who went viral after freaking out upon learning he was a married gay man.
The presidential hopeful said he wanted the woman to know that he loves his husband, Chasten, just as she does her family and “wants to be her president, too.”
“Well, what I want her to know is that I’m running to be her president too,” Buttigieg said when asked on “The View” about the woman trying to rescind her vote for Buttigieg during Monday’s chaotic Iowa Caucus.
“Of course, I wish she was able to see that my love is the same as her love for those that she cares about, that my marriage means as much to me as hers if she’s married,” Buttigieg said.
“But if she can’t see that, and even if because she can’t see that, she won’t vote for me, I am still, if I am elected president, going to get up in the morning and try to make the best decisions for her and the people that she loves as I will work to serve every American, whether they supported me or not.”
Buttigieg, the former South Bend mayor, is in a virtual tie with Bernie Sanders for delegates in the Iowa Caucus, according to results on Thursday.
The Iowa supporter woman had signed a card for Buttigieg on Monday but freaked out moments later when she learned he was gay and married to another man — declaring “it all just went right down the toilet.”
A viral clip shows the unidentified woman — wearing a green hoodie and denim jacket with an Amy Klobuchar pin — going on an anti-gay rant and attempting to take back her vote while a caucus precinct captain for Buttigieg tries to reason with her.
“Are you saying that he has the same-sex partner? Pete?” the woman says in the video.
“Yes,” replies the precinct captain, identified as Nikki van den Heever.
“Are you kidding?” the incredulous woman exclaims. “Then I don’t want anybody like that in the White House. So can I have my card back? I never knew that.”
The former South Bend, Indiana mayor has campaigned openly as a married gay man from the beginning of his run for the White House in April, and he and husband Chasten Buttigieg graced the cover of Time magazine in May.