By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
Barack Obama, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and … Pete Buttigieg? The list of today’s famous national politicians who have been immortalized as bobbleheads includes the former candidate in the 2020 U.S. presidential race who is affectionately known as “Mayor Pete.”
The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee released a Buttigieg bobblehead on Jan. 7, which happened to be National Bobblehead Day.
He’s the first U.S. transportation secretary to be featured as a bobblehead doll.
Buttigieg was sworn in as the nation’s 19th transportation secretary on Feb. 3, 2021, at the age of 38. While running for president in 2019, he was the youngest mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a position he held from 2012 to 2020.
Prior to serving as mayor, he worked on political campaigns for former democratic congresswoman Jill Long Thompson, former U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who lost the 2004 U.S. presidential election to George W. Bush. In addition, Buttigieg ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic nominee for Indiana’s state treasurer.
Buttigieg was sworn in as the nation’s 19th transportation secretary on Feb. 2, 2021. Now 39, he’s the youngest person to hold the cabinet post. U.S. Department of Transportation A Harvard College and Oxford University graduate, he also served as an intelligence officer for the U.S. Navy from 2009 to 2017 and earned the rank of lieutenant.
Buttigieg became the first openly gay candidate to win a presidential primary — topping the Iowa Caucus in 2019 — as well as the nation’s first openly gay cabinet member, youngest-ever cabinet member and youngest U.S. transportation secretary.
But it wasn’t those milestones or accomplishments that prompted the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum to fashion a Buttigieg bobblehead, said Phil Sklar, the organization’s co-founder and CEO, in an email. It had more to do with Milwaukee serving as the site of the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
“We started planning for a special bobblehead exhibit related to the convention in 2019, but that planning came to a halt when the pandemic upended the world and caused the convention to go virtual,” said Sklar. “One of the exhibits was related to all the candidates that were seeking the 2020 nomination. The special exhibit was cancelled, but we had already begun the process for many of the candidate bobbleheads.”
Since Buttigieg was confirmed as U.S. transportation secretary, the museum decided to proceed with his bobblehead.
“It’s fitting, especially given his unique story and popularity as ‘Mayor Pete,’” said Sklar.
It’s also fitting that the bobblehead depicts the modest and humble Buttigieg dressed in a dark suit and blue tie and standing with his hands in his pockets. He’s positioned on a base featuring circular stars and stripes.
Available from the museum, the bobblehead is individually numbered to 2,021 to commemorate the year Buttigieg became US. transportation secretary.
