Hi, I'm Jonathan Kap Hart and welcome to Cape Up.

When Mayor Pete Budigich was first on the podcast in December 2018, he was the little-known

mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Today, he's a top-tier candidate for the Democratic

nomination for president. I sat with him in Charleston, South Carolina where we talked

about the rise of Bernie Sanders, the hurdles he still faces with black voters, and

whether he's actually gay. Here it all right now. Mayor Pete Puddajajajed, welcome back to the podcast.

Thanks for having me.

All right, let's jump right on in.

Is it too late to stop Senator Bernie Sanders? No, but it will be if we don't

get our act together. Look, we have a very clear choice as a party right now. We can take his

approach and I recognize that he speaks for a lot of ideals that we share but it's also an approach that is about

Consolidating a base and pushing away people who disagree with you at a moment when I think we have to be doing the opposite.

Now we're only three states in.

We're on the eve of the South Carolina primary then comes Super Tuesday but we could wake up after

Super Tuesday with no going back and I think it's time to really ask ourselves how we're

going to move forward. You said it will be if we don't get our act together.

What does that mean? What does that look like get our act together?

Well, of course what I think that should look like is to rally around a candidate,

perhaps the one candidate to have actually beaten Bernie Sanders anywhere in the country this cycle,

which is my campaign.

And look at a vision that can make room for everybody that is very progressive and set up in a way that can actually reach

out to independence and draw some Republicans over the line too because I think that's how we're

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