U.S. President-elect Joe Biden announced Pete Buttigieg as his nominee to lead the U.S. Transportation Department, making him the first of Biden’s Democratic rivals for the presidency to land a role in his Cabinet.
The appointment of Buttigieg, 38, is another step in a meteoric political rise for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who showed surprising strength as a presidential candidate. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he would run a sprawling federal agency that oversees the nation’s airlines, highways and transit systems.
"I am nominating him for Secretary of Transportation because this position stands at the nexus of so many of the interlocking challenges and opportunities ahead of us. Jobs, infrastructure, equity, and climate all come together at the DOT, the site of some of our most ambitious plans to build back better," Biden said in a statement.
Buttigieg was surprisingly competitive during the Democratic Party presidential race, winning the first-in-the-nation caucuses in Iowa, showing formidable fundraising might and enjoying massive popularity on social media, Reuters reported.
