Pete Buttigieg sat in the center of a circle of 25 undecided Michigan voters in a new video released the day before the 2024 election, as each of them brought their views—some well-informed and others fueled by internet misinformation—and asked him to change their minds.
“I know that I’m simultaneously speaking to some people who come at this from a more conservative perspective and are deciding whether to go for Trump even though they’re not sure, others who are coming from a more left of center perspective and deciding whether to vote third party or whether to vote at all,” Buttigieg said in the video, addressing the surrounding voters. But “if you’re skeptical of him and if you’re willing to give her a chance, I’m urging you not just to withhold your vote from him but to use your power to make sure that she becomes the next president of the United States,” he continued.
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Buttigieg is asked to answer for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ records on everything from crime to reproductive rights to the environment, and to challenge some of their views that Donald Trump or third party candidate Jill Stein were better candidates. His claims for why Harris is the best candidate were challenged by the surrounding undecided voters, which were made up of 11 people who were leaning towards not voting at all, five leaning third party, four leaning towards voting for Trump, and six leaning towards Harris.
The Indiana mayor turned Secretary of Transportation was the newest major politician to sit down for Jubilee Media’s often viral “Surrounded” video series, where participants sit in a circle and debate one another about any number of polarizing issues. Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro recently found himself “surrounded” by voters who schooled him on a number of controversial issues.
“I want to see something different,” one voter, who was leaning towards Jill Stein, told Buttigieg, citing concerns about the environment. “[The Democrats are] always talking about EVs and solar panels—what are we doing to protect our lakes in Michigan?” Buttigieg explains that Harris is “going to enforce the Clean Water Act” while Trump is “going to tear it up.”
“You keep mentioning stuff about Trump but I’m trying to tell you I’m in between Jill and Kamala,” she responded. But Buttigieg pointed out that there’s one candidate that can realistically address her concerns. “Neither party is perfect,” he said, but “Jill Stein is not going to become president of the United States,” he added, explaining that Trump’s side says “Climate change is a hoax and it’s not even a thing.”
Another person who challenged the secretary and was leaning towards not voting asked him what the Biden-Harris administration has done to improve quality of life and disincentivize crime. After laying out Harris’ experience as a career prosecutor and her position on pushing through gun reform including background checks to purchase firearms, Buttigieg also shared there have been other steps taken.
“There’s actually direct research that shows if you have more kids exposed to lead, you run the clock out 15 years, you’ll see higher crime rates because the developmental issues that they experience through lead poisoning lead them to be more likely to be justice involved,” he explained. “So replacing all the lead pipes—it’s not sexy—I actually think it’s one of the best things we can do that can lead to a safer society and less crime.” Harris is interested in finding ways like this to “make people better off,” Buttigieg added. “I know she does ‘cause I know her. It’s not what I believe he does.”
Buttigieg also faced one undecided voter who said she didn’t trust the Democrats to enforce reproductive rights, nor the VP for campaigning on the issue when “it’s part of our state constitution,” she said, calling it “manipulation of voters.” The secretary pointed out that Trump is not the answer, since you don’t want your rights to “evaporate” when you “cross the state line.” He also cited Trump’s stance against marriage equality, which effects Buttigieg directly as an openly gay married man, after which the voter asked, “The evidence you have of Donald Trump being against gay marriage or wanting to roll back protections for gay folks to be married?”
“The evidence is that he ran for president with a platform that specifically said in black and white that they were against marriage equality,” Buttigieg replied.
In his closing remarks, the secretary told the surrounding participants, “In a state where it’s this close and you all are in the center of the political universe as Michigan voters, if you want to prevent the bad outcomes and deliver the good ones,” Harris should get their votes.
“I’m not just here talking about what I believe in blocking, but in what I believe in building,” he said. “That we will have a better country, I’m not seeing it’s perfect, none of this is perfect, but that we’ll have cleaner water and safer communities and one more thing we didn’t get to talk about as much but I think might matter to a lot of folks, definitely a lot of undecided folks—actually get politics out of our face just a little bit so we can have like maybe a normal Republican Party to debate issues on a normal basis for the Democratic Party. And maybe more parties emerge, but just to not have politics punching us in the face all the time every time you look at Instagram or the news.”
By the end of the nearly one-hour event, after the participants tally where the conversation had swayed them (or not), Buttigieg was able to shift the some opinions, with 12 people now convinced to vote for Harris, five voting for Trump, six third party, and three still not voting at all—winning six new votes for the VP.
One participant who shared his final thoughts at the end of the video had this to say: “I wish I could vote for Pete.”
