South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg has been busy on the campaign trail, meeting voters and driving a fundraising effort that shocked the 2020 democratic field this week when he announced his campaign had raised $7m.
But, the Indiana mayor has still found some time for his current slate of official duties, and recently officiated an emergency wedding for a couple right before they had a C-section.
Mr Buttigieg said that a couple in his town — Mary and Gabe — ran into him as he was arriving at his office, and asked him to marry them before they headed off to the hospital.
So, using ribbons as wedding rings and city staff as witnesses, the couple was married at 8.15am, and were still able to make it to their 9am C-section appointment.
“It's moments like this that I'll miss when my term as mayor comes to an end,” Mr Buttigieg later wrote in a Facebook post, alongside photos of Jade Katherine Jones, who he celebrated as his city’s “newest resident”.
“Congratulations to the newlyweds and new parents, and welcome, Jade, to this unlikely and lovely world!” he wrote.
Mr Buttigieg is the youngest candidate in the democratic field, and has been receiving quite a lot of attention in the crowded field of presidential hopefuls.
Just this week, his campaign announced that he had raised a staggering $7m during the first three months of the year — a remarkable figure for a candidate who was virtually unknown before joining the race.
Mr Buttigieg still faces a steep uphill battle to secure the Democratic Party nomination, and has not yet topped even 3 per cent in aggregates of national polls.
There is still, however, plenty of time for him to gain ground on his better known opposition, with the first votes in the primary season not being cast until next year. There will also be several debates between now and then for Mr Buttigieg to make his mark.
