Indiana mayor turns Democrat field in to a four-horse race

Here comes Pete Buttigieg. Suddenly the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is no longer a three-way battle.

Pete Buttigieg on the hustings in Los Angeles on Monday. Picture: AFP

Here comes Pete Buttigieg. Suddenly the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is no longer a three-way battle between septuagenarians Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

Buttigieg, more than three decades younger at 37, has passed them all in the critical state of Iowa, according to the latest polls. With his doing so, more and more Democrats are taking a serious look at the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and wondering whether he is the rising star they have been looking for amid a lacklustre field of contenders to take on Donald Trump next year.

READ MORE: Barack Obama warns Democrats of lurching to the left

Certainly in Iowa, which is the first state to vote in the Democratic presidential caucus on February 3, Buttigieg is running hot and is generating a buzz that former vice-president Biden and senators Warren and Sanders can only dream of.

The state’s latest flagship poll, the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom survey, shows Buttigieg leapfrogging his more experienced older rivals with 25 per cent ­support, a 16-percentage-point gain from September.

Then came Warren on 16 per cent, a six-point drop; Biden on 15 per cent, a five-point drop and Sanders also on 15 per cent, a four- point gain. Coming a distant fifth was senator Amy Klobuchar on 6 per cent before a cluster of candidates on 3 per cent.

Buttigieg’s national polls are much weaker at only 8 per cent compared with 26 per cent for Biden, 20.8 per cent for Warren and 17.8 per cent for Sanders, but a victory in Iowa would quickly change that and potentially upend the Democrat race. The last four Democrats to win their party’s nomination also won in Iowa.

“We know that we’re not as well-known as some of my competitors,” Buttigieg said about the poll result. “So it’s very encouraging and, at the same time, there’s a long way to go, and there are a lot of states in this process.”

Buttigieg, a former Rhodes Scholar and Afghanistan veteran who is gay, is running on a more moderate platform than those of big-spending populists Warren and Sanders.

His energetic campaigning style and articulate message has stolen some support away from Biden, 76, whose performance has been at times halting and gaffe-ridden. Buttigieg has also benefitedted in Iowa from a troubled few weeks for the 70-year-old Warren, who has seen her momentum of recent months come to a halt amid growing questions over the cost and practicality of her sweeping Medicare For All scheme that would abolish private health ­insurance.

With polls showing that many Democrats are concerned about such revolutionary changes in healthcare, Warren has been forced to unveil a more flexible ­approach to her promise that ­delays her policy.

Under her new proposal announced last Saturday (AEDT), all Americans will be able to participate in Medicare but it will not be mandatory initially. She would then push for a fully blown Medicare For All scheme during her third year in office.

Buttigieg and Biden have proposed a more modest expansion of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act with the option of keeping private health insurance.

Warren’s recent surge in the polls alarmed moderate Democrats who fear her policies would be too extreme for voters and that she would lose an election against Trump.

Obama has issued a rare warning to Democrats not to be too radical. “This is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement,” Obama said. “They like seeing things improved. But the average American doesn’t think that we have to completely tear down the system and remake it. And I think it’s important for us not to lose sight of that.”

A perception that the current Democratic field is weak has led billionaire Michael Bloomberg to make preparations to enter the race. Last week, former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick announced he was joining the now 18-strong Democrat field.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia