Pete Buttigieg becomes first openly gay U.S. transportation secretary following U.S. Senate confirmation to the post this week....He is the first openly gap person to serve on a U.S. presidential cabinet....

Pete Buttigieg

 Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM, COLUMBUS, Ohio –Former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 rival for President Joe Biden's successful bid for president, was confirmed by the Democratically-controlled U.S. Senate on Tuesday as transportation secretary, becoming the first openly gay man to serve on a U.S. presidential cabinet in American history.

He succeeds former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, a millionaire Trump appointee who resigned from the post early last month and the wife of U.S. Sen Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former longtime Senate majority leader.

Confirmed by a vote of 86-13 and along partisan lines, the 39-year-old Buttigieg said he looks forward to bringing reforms to the Department of Transportation from reducing greenhouse gas admissions to rebuilding roads and bridges and supporting Biden's ambitious climate and infrastructure agendas.

He said in a tweet after he was confirmed that he is elated and honored to serve.

“I’m honored and humbled by today’s vote in the Senate and ready to get to work,” said Buttigieg 

His supporters were exited too and called his confirmation a historic moment in American history.

“Congratulations to Secretary  Pete Buttigieg on his historic confirmation,” Alphonso David, president of Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said after the vote. “This confirmation breaks through a barrier that has existed for too long, where LGBTQ identity served as an impediment to nomination or confirmation at the highest level of government.”

Buttigieg is a graduate of Harvard College and Oxford University, who attended Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, and he is a former  intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve.

He is also a Afghanistan War veteran.

He was mayor of South Bend from 2012-2018, when he decided against seeking a third term 

As a 2020 candidate for the Democratic nomination for president Buttigieg narrowly won the Iowa caucuses and placed a close second in the New Hampshire primary, becoming  the first openly gay candidate to win a presidential primary or caucus. 

He quit the presidential race last March and endorsed Biden, who went on to  become the Democratic nominee, and ultimately the  nation's 46th president. 

 Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.