South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg made his re-election campaign official on Tuesday morning, filing the necessary paperwork to make the May 5 primary ballot.
The mayor, who is in his first term, is seeking to capitalize on positive recent development headlines and a growing economy. The mayor’s campaign touted “strong economic development successes” and the “announcement of 1,349 jobs last year alone”.
The campaign added that the city has addressed 750 vacant and abandoned houses in the city as part of the mayor’s “1,000 Houses in 1,000 Days” initiative. That puts the city within 250 houses of the mayor’s stated goal with 307 days left to go before reaching a self-imposed deadline.
“We have only begun to unlock the potential of our community. What we do now will set the tone for the half century to come,” the mayor said in a message to supporters.
It appears increasingly likely that the mayor will only face token opposition in his bid for a second term. No Democrats have filed to challenge Buttigieg in the May primary and a Republican has not won a South Bend mayoral race in decades.
Buttigieg won his first race in a crowded Democratic primary with over 50 percent of the vote against Ryan Dvorak, Mike Hamann and Barrett Berry. He went on to win the general election with 74 percent of the vote. The 2011 campaign was the first to not feature an incumbent on the ballot in over 20 years.
