The San Diego Union-Tribune endorsed former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the Democratic primary race in an editorial published Thursday.
The editorial board described it as a close call between Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), two of the leading moderates in the race. Klobuchar has been endorsed by dozens of editorial boards, including The New York Times, which also endorsed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
“It’s close, but in the view of The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board, Buttigieg is best suited to beat Trump because of his centrist policies, his military experience, his (admittedly small-scale) executive experience and the enthusiasm he’s inspired, with better fundraising and national polling, bigger campaign crowds and more news coverage than Klobuchar,” the board wrote.
“He has shown he can manage a national campaign successfully. And in a nation that only legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, his message of generational change could actually inspire change,” it also said.
California is set to hold its primary on Super Tuesday on March 3 and will award 415 delegates, the biggest haul of that day.
The endorsement comes the day after a heated exchange between the two moderates during the Democratic primary debate on Wednesday, in which Buttigieg hit Klobuchar after she was unable to name the Mexican president during a forum in Nevada earlier this month.
“Are you trying to say that I’m dumb — are you mocking me here, Pete?” Klobuchar said. “I said I made an error; people sometimes forget names. I am the one who has the experience based on passing over 100 bills.”
Klobuchar — along with other 2020 Democrats — have questioned Buttigieg’s experience as a two-term mayor of South Bend.
But the Union-Tribune’s editorial board echoed the responses Buttigieg often gives to those attacks, touting his military experience and record of improving South Bend’s economy while in office.