Peter Buttigieg (AKA Mayor Pete) from South Bend, Indiana, has been making headlines recently - and for all the right reasons.
The openly gay presidential candidate, who is yet to officially announce his candidacy, has enjoyed a growing amount of media coverage this month, impressing political followers with his talks on The View, Morning Joe, Fox News and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Originally considered the , Buttigieg (pronounced Boot-Edge-Edge), has this week placed third in a new poll of potential Democratic voters in Iowa, beating out better-known names including Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.
Often considered a critical state in Presidential elections (it's one of the first to vote in the Primaries), Iowan locals have taken a shining to Buttigieg, with 11 per cent of polled Democrats saying he would be their preferred candidate.
Conducted by , the survey found that the only two candidates polling ahead of Buttigieg are former Vice President Joe Biden, who is yet to announce his candidacy, and Bernie Sanders, who took a crack at the presidency back in 2016.
The news was a welcome boost to the 37 year-old, who , and signals that his grassroots campaign is cutting through the noise of a crowded field of well-known Democrats.
It was last week revealed that Buttigieg had met the donor requirements necessary to qualify for the Democratic Party's first primary debate in June.
Taking to social media, the 37-year-old shared the news: “Thanks to you, we hit the @TheDemocrats 65,000 donor goal in order to be invited to the first debate. But we are going to need to raise a lot more money to compete."
He added: “I know I can hold my own on the debate stage and represent your values with honour and integrity, but I need to know we can build a strong organisation, too.”
It's believed that his official candidacy announcement isn't far off.
