Pete Buttigieg’s historical run for the White House, as an openly gay and serious contender for a major party nomination, is a recurring theme in Jesse Moss’ new documentary, Mayor Pete. World-premiering at the Chicago Film Festival, Mayor Pete streams on Amazon Prime November 12.

Director Moss, whose credits include Boys State and Rated ‘R’: Republicans in Hollywood, makes a point of noting that he did not endorse Buttigieg in the presidential election. Instead, he sees the film as a personal story as much as a political one. Moss had gained access to footage of Pete’s private life, specifically, his relationship with his husband, Chasten Glezman, which is central to who he is and was at the core of his campaign. There are sights of the two men holding on to each other as a married couple, both as an old-fashioned couple but also a gay couple and very new figures in modern politics.

Born on January 19, 1982, Pete Buttigieg boasts impressive educational credits, as a graduate of Harvard College and Oxford University. From 2009 to 2017, he was an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve. He was deployed to Afghanistan for seven months in 2014. Before being elected as Mayor of South Bend, Indiana in 2011, Buttigieg worked on the political campaigns of Democrats, such as John Kerry. While serving as South Bend’s mayor, Buttigieg came out as gay in 2015. He married his husband, Chasten Glezman, a schoolteacher and writer, in June 2018.

Buttigieg launched his campaign for the presidential election on April 14, 2019. Despite initially low expectations, he gained some momentum when he participated in town hall meetings and television debates. Buttigieg narrowly won the Iowa caucuses and placed a close second in the New Hampshire primary. By winning Iowa, he became the first openly gay candidate to win a presidential primary or caucus.

Buttigieg eventually bowed out of the race, helping clear the way for Joe Biden. President Biden then named Buttigieg as his Secretary of Transportation. When his nomination was confirmed, on February 2, 2021, he became the first openly gay Cabinet secretary in US history. At age 38, he also became the youngest Cabinet secretary in the Biden administration.

The film takes viewers behind the scenes of Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, chronicling the highs, the lows, and the many personal moments — some painful, others joyful — in between. The result is a rather intimate look at the pressures Buttigieg has faced — and continues to face — in his emergence as a national LGBTQ figure, his bond with Chasten, all the while projecting a sense that he hasn’t given up his desire to be president.  

In a scene before the first Democratic debate in Miami, Moss captures the challenge Buttigieg aides have in getting him to show stronger engagement, be more emotional. During a prep session, communications advisor Lis Smith notes that David Axelrod, the CNN analyst who served as Obama’s chief strategist, had been critical of Buttigieg.

Buttigieg returned home from the campaign trail to call a meeting after South Bend police officer Ryan O’Neill fatally shot Eric Logan. Axelord described the mayor’s “calm, cool, collected” demeanor during the town hall, which featured emotionally charged pleas from residents and highlighted criticisms about his relationship with African-Americans.

“In the current situation, this is proving to be your greatest weakness,” Smith tells Buttigieg. “And with this debate, so much of it is going to be, ‘are you connecting with people? Are you saying things that project the right kind of warmth?’”

After Buttigieg rehearses how he would answer a question about the Logan shooting, Smith tells him boldly, “It sounded a bit wishy-washy,” before asking most staffers to leave the room so they can work on the feedback. Smith thinks that “When he goes up there, he’s got to show more life, more conviction because he’s coming across like the ‘Tin Man’ up there.”

Smith’s point is a common theme in the feature — can Buttigieg come off as relatable? Can he show more emotion? Buttigieg at times struggles to find the right balance. In one scene, he is sitting in the kitchen and talking to the camera: “One of the things they say I’ve got going for me is authenticity, right? So, the last thing I want is to do or say something that’s not me, in order to satisfy some desire to be more emotional.

Buttigieg then considers the impact of television: “It’s important to connect on an emotional level and not be in your head too much. But in my way of coming at the world, the stronger an emotion is, the more private it is.” In another telling scene, Buttigieg and Chasten express their wish for the campaign to have broad appeal while also inspiring the LGBTQ community. We see the couple attend the Victory Fund dinner, the LGBTQ rights group’s annual fundraiser, where Buttigieg delivered the keynote on April 8, 2019.

Buttigieg recalls how ashamed he was to realize he was gay as a youth, and how it “launched in me something that I can only describe as a war.” “If you had offered me a pill to make me straight, I would have swallowed it before you had time to give me a sip of water,” he tells the crowd, “But thank God there was no pill.”

Moss devotes significant time to Chasten, who became a star in his own right during the campaign. Chasten is shown in public and at campaign events, but also in private moments with Pete. Chasteen says in voice-over narration. “Early on in our relationship, I would say, ‘What’s going on in that head of yours? Pete has grown a lot in being able to verbalize. He’s learned how to allow a personal narrative to have more impact, in a stump speech or policy, as well as in our relationship. “Chasten had (a) different role than I did and we had to figure that out as we went,” Pete says over a video of his husband visiting a teen LGBTQ camp in Iowa. “The challenge from the get-go was how, to be honest and proud, and yet how to do it without swallowing who I was, or what our campaign was about.”

Near the end, a downtrodden Buttigieg is seen in a hotel room as he is forced to acknowledge the reality that he won’t win the Democratic nomination for president. Still, Mayor Pete closes with Buttigieg leaving the door open for another run. “I don’t know,” he says. “I might be, and that’s something. I only got so far, but not a lot of people get that far.”