NEW YORK — Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg teased that he would join Rev. Al Sharpton for a future lunch if he were to run for president in 2028 during a convening of several Democratic hopefuls this week.
“When you ran for president, you met me, and we went out to a well-publicized lunch at Sylvia’s Restaurant in Harlem,” Sharpton told Buttigieg about his 2020 run during a fireside chat at the National Action Network convention in New York. “Just so my calendar is clear, should I be reserving a table at Sylvia’s? Are you going to run again?”
“You save me a seat, I’ll be there,” Buttigieg responded, drawing laughter from the crowd of attendees.
But Buttigieg’s comments and the response from the mostly black audience belie the struggles that the former transportation secretary has faced in trying to court black voters, who make up the most loyal voting bloc for Democrats.
A fall 2025 Yale Youth poll showed Buttigieg garnering just 4% support among black voters. In contrast, former Vice President Kamala Harris recieved 47% of the black vote, more than any other 2028 hopeful surveyed.
Less than an hour before Buttigieg spoke to the crowd, Harris had made the most public comments so far that she could run for president again in 2028.
“I am thinking about it,” she told Sharpton during her fireside chat.
When the former vice president was done speaking, roughly one-third of the black audience trickled out before Buttigieg’s remarks were set to begin.
“Buttigieg is a good guy,” said Cheryl Eliano, 68, national vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees District 10, from Texas. “I think he did some good things in transportation. I’m just not sure that he speaks the message for all of us at this time.”
Several other attendees mentioned Buttigieg’s lack of visibility among black voters as why they thought he was struggling.
“He would need a lot of help. He would probably need help from people like Harris and others to at least get what she received,” said Leonard Killings, 66, a pastor from Cleveland. “I don’t know if his name and his work are that well known amongst the grassroots African American residents throughout the country.”
Sharon Kennedy, 64, of Brooklyn, said Harris was more likely to resonate than Buttigieg because of her identity as a woman of color.
“Because she looks like me,” Kennedy, a black woman, said about the two Democrats. “I’m just a little bit more interested in somebody who understands my experience as a black person.”
Kennedy is still deciding who she would back for president and was also undecided about Harris, saying her vote had to be earned.
Buttigieg received some of his loudest cheers when he spoke about his time as a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, helping decrease poverty for his black constituents.
“When I took office, our poverty rate was around 25%,” he said. “Our per capita income was about $18,000. Our unemployment was in the double digits. We were hurting. And when we came together to change that, the result was black unemployment fell by more than half. Poverty in the city and black poverty in the city fell.”
He also received applause as he addressed voting rights and the issues black voters have faced in trying to cast a ballot.
“I would argue, if you have to wait more than one hour in line to vote, do you really have a right to vote that’s being enforced?” Buttigieg said as the crowd began to lightly clap. “You shouldn’t have to wait more than an hour to cast a vote. Ultimately, in the long run, I think this may not be something that we can fully resolve until we have a specific constitutional protection of that right to vote.”
But hovering over Buttigieg’s possible presidential run is his sexuality and the sometimes complicated reaction some black voters may have.
“He is gay and not familiar,” said Gloria Callahan, 73, a retiree from New York, about why Buttigieg was struggling with black voters.
“When I was listening to him, he was a very good motivating speaker. That’s a huge thing,” said Callahan, who says she is supporting Harris. “Kamala is not.”
Some black voters dismissed questions about Buttigieg’s sexuality, claiming what mattered was whether he could lead as commander in chief.
“We’re talking about everybody coming together, being concerned, especially with Trump and MAGA, and that group [that] don’t believe in DEI,” said Rev. Wallis Gator Bradley, 74, from Chicago. “We don’t have that luxury to argue about none of that.”
Bradley, who said he favors Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) in the 2028 race, pointed to New York residents coming together to elect Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim socialist, as an example of Democrats electing candidates who can win irrespective of their identities.
“And I’m saying that because I’m in New York, and the people in New York made the right decision by electing the mayor of New York, who was elected by all the people in New York,” Bradley said.
Buttigieg is in third place, at 10.5%, among the 2028 Democratic hopefuls behind Harris, 26.4%, and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), 19.4%, according to a RealClearPolitics poll composite.
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But Callahan said Buttigieg could still spend the next two years making inroads, conceding that Harris, although a front-runner, is not a shoo-in for the nomination.
“That’s what the campaign … is all about, that visibility, making your name a household word,” she said.