Buttigieg: ‘We’ve outlived the flavor of the month period’

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) told CNN Tuesday that his insurgent presidential campaign has “outlived the flavor of the month period.”

Buttigieg said while his CNN town hall in March was a major turning point in his campaign, he was encouraged by the fact that “what I had to say that night wasn’t that different from what I’d been saying all along.” The 37-year-old added he was surprised by the speed of his rise in the polls, saying the campaign had been content with “patiently building an organization.”

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on his rise in the polls: “You want to make sure you’re not regarded as a flash in the pan, but I think the fact we’ve been at this more than a month, so we’ve outlived the flavor of the month period.” https://t.co/IAc1aKK7iU pic.twitter.com/DTE54bCnsL

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 16, 2019

{mosads}”You want to make sure you’re not regarded as a flash in the pan, but I think the fact we’ve been at this more than a month, so we’ve outlived the flavor of the month period,” Buttigieg said. “Now comes the sometimes unglamorous work of building out those early state organizations, building the fundraising, doing the grass-roots volunteer organizing that will power us all the way through into next year.”

Buttigieg, who faced low name recognition and an already-crowded field when he first announced his candidacy earlier this year, has surged to third place in several state and national polls, behind Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has not yet announced a run, and a nationwide poll released this week indicated Buttigieg would be the second choice of 17 percent of current Biden supporters.

Buttigieg raised more than $7 million in the first quarter of 2019, with his donors including conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s son James and actors Ryan Reynolds and Mandy Moore.