For 2020 U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, democracy—rather, access to democracy—is one of the more important issues on his agenda, both during this election cycle and once he’s in office, should he be elected.
“It is still far too common for people to be excluded from voting or find it harder to vote, often for reasons with racial or partisan motivation,” the Southbend, Indiana, mayor told ESSENCE during a sit-down in New Orleans. “We’ve got to fix that, we’ve got to fix the way our districts are drawn, we’ve got to fix money in politics.”
“The reason it matters so much is that every other issue that we care about from economics to gun violence, to climate to immigration is at stake in our getting this right,” Buttigieg added.
In fact, Buttigieg believes that voter suppression is so important, he pledges to do something about it within the first 90 days.
“Right away we’ve got to get to work on the way people are being excluded from democracy because we’ve got to get ready for the next election,” he said. “And I’m not saying that from a Democratic perspective, I’m saying that from an American perspective. We know that communities of color are excluded, we can work on that right away.”