Pete Buttigieg and Fox News Talk Town Hall Appearance

A spokesperson for 2020 hopeful Pete Buttigieg told the Hill that “reaching out to the Fox audience is something we intend to do.”

The day after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared on Fox News for a “town hall” meeting, Buttigieg’s campaign confirmed that it would like to do the same. The Indiana mayor has surged in the polls, making a strong case for his 2020 candidacy.

A self-described “democratic socialist,” Buttigieg seems to have seen the benefit of reaching American voters outside of his party. This means engaging with conservative viewers on the network — even though Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez has announced that Fox would not be allowed to host any Democrat primary debates.

Despite his growing popularity, Buttigieg remains a distant third to former Vice President Joe Biden and Sanders. Both candidates are polling at 24 percent and 29 percent respectively, while Buttigieg is polling around 9 percent.

This is not the first time Buttigieg has worked with Fox News. He is the only 2020 candidate to have appeared on Fox News Sunday in 2019, but it is not his first time on the network. He also participated in former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s 2016 town hall.

Nothing is certain, however. Buttigieg is still in the thick of a fight for third in the polls, with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke nipping at his heels. Still, the Afghanistan War veteran, Harvard graduate, and Rhodes scholar was all but unknown just a couple of months ago, suggesting that there could be much more to come from the left’s newest darling.