Buttigieg: Electability argument will sway voters of color because ‘we dare not get this wrong’

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that he believed he would be able to improve his support among minority voters ahead of the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary by touting his ability to defeat President Trump.

“We’ve seen how fluid it is, of course I don’t have billions of dollars of my own money to pour into the airwaves,” the former South Bend, Ind. mayor said on “Fox News Sunday,” in an apparent reference to Tom Steyer, who leads him in several South Carolina polls.

However, Buttigieg told host Chris Wallace, that the 2020 election “for so many voters and for a lot of voters of color that I talked to … is about making sure that we get this right.”

“The Senate demonstrated that it’s not going to hold this president accountable, in 2020 it is our only shot,” Buttigieg continued. “We dare not get this wrong, and that means nominating a candidate who can challenge this president on his own terms.”

Wallace also asked Buttigieg whether he and his fellow moderate candidates such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and former Vice President Joe Biden are splitting the vote in early contests, and paving the way for progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to win the nomination.

“How concerned are you that the moderate lane is getting so crowded that you could be leaving the road to the nomination open to Bernie Sanders?” Wallace asked.

“I think that’s what voters right now are in the process of settling,” Buttigieg replied, adding that  “we can’t confront the most disruptive president in modern times by falling back on the same playbook, just as we also can’t do it by telling people that their only options are between a revolution and the status quo.”