Welcome to Texas ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan from Mack, and today I am actually on an assignment at a conference in Los Angeles.

So rather than do a new program, today we're going to rerun something we did in early March,

a conversation with 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who no one really knew when we first did the interview,

but who is now all over the place.

Enjoy.

Mr. Mayor, it's been said for a long time

that cities are America's public policy and kind of innovation labs,

and you've had lots of ideas and thoughts about how to make things run more

efficiently in South Bend. So basically, why run for president rather than continue to test out

these ideas in your city? You know, I love the opportunity to be mayor. In my going on eight years,

we've been able to do things I'm really proud of for our community. But we're also operating

in a national environment that is making it

harder and harder for mayors to do our jobs. And I think we would be well served to have Washington

begin to look more like our best-run cities and towns rather than the other way around, which is what

I fear will happen if we don't begin finding ways to bring the best of local leadership and local problem solving to the

highest offices. At the city level, we are compelled to innovate. We're compelled to solve

problems. If you become president, how do you make the jobs of mayors and governors easier?

Well, for one thing, we create an environment that empowers good local leaders to do their

work. That means directing resources

directly to local communities in ways that right now are often either held up at the federal

level or sometimes overly mediated by the state level. It also means making sure that the

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