Pete Buttigieg Ad Reaches for Voters in Decaying ‘Rust Belt’

Mayor Pete Buttigieg released an ad Monday to appeal to voters in the “Rust Belt” of the Midwest.

“This part of the country, the so-called ‘Rust Belt,’ was gutted by corporate decisions over the course of the last 50 years,” Buttigieg says in the ad which features images of his campaign bus traveling through the Midwest.

The ad reminds voters Buttigieg grew up in South Bend Indiana, the only child of college professor parents. 

“Growing up here, I didn’t even know that it was unusual to have empty factories or empty houses,” he said, repeating a common campaign and debate line used to try to identify with the plights of the Midwest.

Buttigieg’s ad does not mention previous trade deals made in Washington how he plans to address the ongoing trade fight with China but rather touts his own campaign plan to give workers a $15 minimum wage and increase union membership.

“Right now so many communities are being left behind. The solutions aren’t going to come from Washington,” he says in the ad. “We’ve got to have a plan that works for all of us, or we’re going to continue to become polarized and divided.”