Some believe the Democratic Party’s next savior is living here, huddled with family, in the relative obscurity of a small city on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Pete Buttigieg has yet to decide if that’s a responsibility he wants.

For now, Buttigieg, the 43-year-old former U.S. Transportation Secretary, is discussing his future with party officials, labor leaders and top strategists. He must decide soon whether he wants to return to the national spotlight as a candidate in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race or step aside to instead seek a much bigger role as his party’s next presidential nominee.

Prominent allies believe Buttigieg cannot feasibly do both, even as others raise the comparison to Barack Obama, who was elected President just four years after becoming a U.S. Senator.

“I don’t think you can run for Senate in 2026 and run for President in 2028 … I would think that would be very, very hard,” said Obama’s former chief strategist David Axelrod, who met briefly with Buttigieg last week ahead of a joint appearance at the University of Chicago.

The Democratic Party may be hurting more at this moment than it was two decades ago, when voters turned to that first-term Senator from Illinois over more established candidates to lead their comeback from the Bush years. Indeed, Democrats, demoralized and afraid, are crying out for strong new leadership with President Donald Trump and his allies, notably Elon Musk, racing to transform Washington while gutting key federal agencies.

Buttigieg has the tools to lead his party on a national scale if he wants. More than four years after the little-known Mayor outperformed far more experienced Democrats in the Iowa presidential caucuses, he remains one of the party’s best communicators, boasting a massive social media following, a national donor network and a Midwestern charm he displays in Fox News Channel interviews and smaller settings alike.

More than anything, allies say, Buttigieg’s decision will be guided by the impact on his young family at a difficult cultural moment in Trump’s America. The Republican President has targeted LGBTQ+ initiatives and inclusion programs. Buttigieg is the openly gay father of 3-year-old twins.

Axelrod complimented Buttigieg as “one of the most talented people in the party.”

“He would be a frontline candidate in any race that he ran,” Axelrod said.

Life in ‘the Cherry Capital of the World’

Buttigieg has lowered his profile since leaving the Biden administration last month.

He hasn’t done any media interviews. He declined to speak to The Associated Press for this story. And he has challenged Trump only with a handful of social media posts, notably pushing back on the Republican President’s blaming of diversity hiring for the deadly midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

But based on the response, Democrats like what he has to say. His posts on X frequently garner millions of views. And just over a week after joining the newer social media platform Bluesky, he has quickly become one of its most-followed Democrats.

Buttigieg, a former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has been a more visible presence around his new home of Traverse City, a lakeside resort town that calls itself “the Cherry Capital of the World.” His husband, Chasten Buttigieg, grew up in Traverse City.

“Chasten actually was a speaker at our last Obama dinner; he sat at my table,” said Lauren Flynn, a local county Commissioner. “I always get text messages from folks saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, I saw Pete shopping downtown or running by the bay.’”

It’s much the same at the local coffee shop, Higher Grounds Trading Co., which features a pride flag out front and progressive messages on the walls. One barista described the shop as a low-profile spot where most customers don’t disturb the town’s highest-profile resident.

“He’s been coming in more frequently,” barista Sydney Hall said recently, noting she’d served Buttigieg and his husband earlier that day.

The coffee shop may be a welcoming environment, but some warn of safety concerns for members of the LGBTQ+ community and other prominent Democrats in the current political environment.

Aaron Wright, President of the Traverse City-based Up North Pride, praised Buttigieg and his family for “sacrificing their physical safety for the betterment of their local area, the state and society.” He noted Traverse City is just 20 minutes from where members of a local militia plotted to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

“That’s the No. 1 thing that I would imagine they’re considering is the physical safety of being where they are, as the people that they are, because people are drinking out of the firehose of misinformation and disinformation,” Wright said. “Malignant groups that want to see people like me suffer.”

Wright’s husband, Trenton Lee, Chair of the local Democratic Party, said his political opponents in local campaigns often focus on his sexuality rather than policies.

“Pete offers that challenge to the other side, where if you took out his sexual orientation, the way he’s able to articulate issues and then actually work on them, he’s a shoo-in for whatever he runs for,” Lee said. “It forces them to be like, ‘The only issue I have is that he’s gay.’”

Buttigieg is already facing allegations from some critics that he moved to the state solely to help his political career.

“It’s not just that he carpet-bagged to Michigan a few years ago after being the mayor of South Bend. It’s that he did it in the most unrelatable enclave in the entire state,” said Jason Roe, a Republican strategist and former Executive Director of the state party.

Traverse City, Roe said, is an “elite bubble” that only “underscores an elitism that was one of the problems in the Democratic Party.” Roe added that he’ll be surprised if Buttigieg enters the race, “because if he runs and loses, he could be done.”

A plum opportunity in a key state

There may be no better staging ground for an ambitious Democrat in 2025 than Michigan.

Democratic Sen. Gary Peters’ unexpected retirement created a rare Senate vacancy ahead of next year’s midterms. A Republican hasn’t been elected to the U.S. Senate in Michigan this century, although Mike Rogers came within less than 1 percentage point last fall and is planning to run again.

Michigan also offers a home state advantage to any prospective presidential candidate in 2028. The state is expected to host one of the nation’s opening Presidential Primaries. And in the general election, Michigan will be a premier swing state.

Buttigieg is leaning on powerful allies to help make his decision.

Longtime Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who retired in January and considers Buttigieg a close friend, attended his twins’ birthday party and visited him at home recently. She said she doesn’t expect to endorse in the Senate Primary, but she told him directly he’d be a “very strong” candidate.

“If he announced now, he’d be the front-runner,” Stabenow told the AP. “He’s a Midwesterner, and he talks like a Midwesterner. He’s somebody I think people really relate to.”

Stabenow said she dares Buttigieg’s opponents to try to use his limited time in Michigan as a political weapon.

“We have thousands of people that marry into Michigan every year,” Stabenow said. “We have a great (former) Governor who was born in Canada. If that’s the best they’ve got, great.”

Buttigieg has recently spoken with labor leaders across Michigan and met with Whitmer and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a Democrat expected to enter the Senate race soon. Veteran Democratic strategist Lis Smith, a key adviser on Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign and a close ally, has also worked with McMorrow in the past.

Exploring his appeal beyond Michigan

But Buttigieg is also looking beyond Michigan.

Former Rep. Annie Kuster, a New Hampshire Democrat, who left Congress in January, said she speaks to Buttigieg semi-regularly and recently encouraged him to run for the Senate. Like other Buttigieg allies, she said his young family remains his chief concern as he navigates his options.

“He’s hugely talented,” Kuster said. “And he has a tremendous ability to communicate — and communicate with the very people that we’re missing: the middle of the country, small towns.”

Whether he runs for the Senate or not, Kuster said, there are plenty of New Hampshire Democrats who’d welcome him back to the state’s high-profile Presidential Primary in 2028. Buttigieg finished second in New Hampshire during his underdog 2020 presidential bid.

Kuster pointed to Obama as an example of someone who ran for the Senate and then President a few years later.

“These are all of the things he and his team are navigating,” Kuster said. “He obviously has a ton of choices.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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A news conference that was planned to follow talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy was canceled Thursday as political tensions deepened between the two countries over how to end the almost three-year war with Russia.

The event was originally supposed to include comments to the media by Zelenskyy and retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, but it was changed at the last minute to a simple photo opportunity where the two posed for journalists. They did not deliver statements or field questions as expected. The change was requested by the U.S. side, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhii Nikiforov said.

Kellogg’s trip to Kyiv coincided with recent feuding between Trump and Zelenskyy that has bruised their personal relations and cast further doubt on the future of U.S. support for Ukraine’s war effort.

Dozens of journalists gathered at Ukraine’s presidential office in Kyiv after being invited to take photos and observe a news conference with Zelenskyy and Kellogg. As the meeting began, photographers and video journalists were allowed into a room where the two men shook hands before sitting across from each other at a table.

Journalists were then informed that there would be no news conference with remarks by the leaders or questions from reporters. Nikiforov gave no reason for the sudden change except to say that it was in accordance with U.S. wishes.

The U.S. delegation made no immediate comment. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about why the news conference was called off.

The two men were due to speak about Trump’s efforts to end the war. Zelenskyy had previously said he looked forward to explaining what was happening in Ukraine and showing it to Kellogg.

Kellogg, one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book laying out an “America First” national security agenda, has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues.

Writing on his Telegram channel, Zelenskyy said the meeting with Kellogg was a “good conversation, lots of details.” He said they discussed security guarantees for Ukraine and the return of Ukrainian prisoners from Russian custody.

“We can and must make peace reliable and lasting so that Russia can never return with war again,” he wrote. “Ukraine is ready for a strong, truly beneficial agreement with the President of the United States on investments and security.”

Zelenskyy and Trump have traded rebukes in recent days.

The spat erupted after Russia and the U.S. agreed Tuesday to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties. With that, Trump abruptly reversed the three-year U.S. policy of isolating Russia.

Zelenskyy was unhappy that a U.S. team opened the talks without inviting him or European governments that have backed Kyiv.

When Trump claimed Zelenskyy was deeply unpopular in Ukraine, the President said Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space,” suggesting he had been duped by Vladimir Putin.

But Zelenskyy “retains a fairly high level of public trust” — about 57 percent — according to a report released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Trump accused Zelenskyy of being “A Dictator without Elections!!” Due to the war, Ukraine did delay elections that were scheduled for April 2024.

Trump also suggested that Ukraine was to blame for the war.

Russia’s army crossed the border on Feb. 24, 2022, in an all-out invasion that Putin sought to justify by falsely saying it was needed to protect Russian-speaking civilians in eastern Ukraine and prevent the country from joining NATO.

On Wednesday, Trump warned Zelenskyy that he “better move fast” to negotiate an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or risk not having a nation to lead.

European leaders quickly threw their support behind Zelenskyy.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz whose country has been Kyiv’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the U.S., said it was “wrong and dangerous” to deny Zelenskyy’s democratic legitimacy.

Ukraine has been defending itself for nearly three years against a merciless war of aggression — day after day,” Scholz told news outlet Der Spiegel.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to Zelenskyy on Wednesday and expressed support for him “as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader,” Starmer’s office said, adding that it was “perfectly reasonable” to postpone elections during wartime.

Russian officials, meanwhile, are basking in Washington’s attention and offering words of support for Trump’s stance.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the rhetoric of Zelenskyy and many representatives of the Kyiv regime in general leaves much to be desired” — a veiled reference to Ukrainian criticism of Putin.

“Representatives of the Ukrainian regime, especially in recent months, often allow themselves to make statements about the heads of other states that are completely unacceptable,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.

Amid the diplomatic clamor, Ukrainian civilians continue to endure Russian strikes. Russia fired 161 Shahed and decoy drones and up to 14 missiles of various types at Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, according to military authorities.

A Russian glide bomb struck an apartment block in the southern city of Kherson on Wednesday night, killing one person and wounding six, including 14-year-old twins, authorities said.

The southern port city of Odesa also came under a Russian drone attack for the second consecutive night, leaving almost 50,000 homes without electricity in freezing winter temperatures, officials said.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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In the wake of his executive order, the Defense Department issued guidance declaring “identity months dead” and said that working hours would no longer be used to mark cultural awareness months such as Black History Month, Women’s History Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

That seemed to clash with a National Black History Month proclamation signed the same day by Trump, which called for “public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.”

While the White House has issued its position, agencies of the government have discretion on whether to continue to recognize Black History Month, according to the official.

On Feb. 1, the first day of Black History Month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that his department “will no longer participate in celebrations based on immutable traits or any other identity-based observances.” And in a diplomatic cable, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the agency’s removal of DEI policies would dovetail with “eliminating our focus on political and cultural causes that are divisive at home and deeply unpopular abroad.”

The administration has issued a deadline to schools and universities to eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal money. Major corporations have backtracked on DEI policies in hiring, promotion and workplace culture in recent months, with many citing potential legal challenges from the administration.

Black History Month has been recognized by every U.S. president since 1976, including Trump during his first term.

“Black History is American history. And similar to the story of our nation, it is a story of strength, resilience, and dogged perseverance,” said CJ Pearson, a national co-chair of the Republican National Committee’s youth advisory council. Pearson, who is Black, has been an outspoken defender of Trump against Black civic leaders, civil rights advocates and Democrats who lambast the president as racist.

“President Trump’s anti-DEI policies aren’t promoting racism but what they are doing is manifesting the dream of the great Martin Luther King, Jr.: a nation where one isn’t judged by the color of their skin but instead by the content of their character,” said Pearson, who will attend the White House event.

Other Black Republicans aren’t so sanguine about the administration’s current course or what it portends for the GOP’s nascent inroads with Black voters or other communities of color.

“Trump can build upon the coalition he pulled together in November with Blacks and Asians and Hispanics and young folks,” said Raynard Jackson, a Republican strategist. “But if they leave it the way it stands right now, Trump is going to destroy the very coalition he so marvelously brought to the table in November.”

To Jackson, DEI is a catch-all for liberal policies that are “unrecognizable” from the original intent of civil rights laws meant to promote the social and economic progress of Black Americans. But in removing and denigrating the policies, Jackson said, the White House risked being labeled as discriminatory by offering no alternative framework for how disadvantaged communities can get ahead.

“How do you have diversity without it being a mandated bean-counting situation?” Jackson asked. “They’ve done a masterful job at telling me what they’re against. I’m waiting to hear what they’re for.”

During the 2024 campaign, Trump tried to reach Black voters through in-person events in Atlanta, Chicago and New York. His campaign courted Black celebrities and media personalities to boost his message. Trump’s Black conservative allies, including Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., conducted roundtables at Black barbershops and bus tours through majority-Black cities.

But Trump also frequently denigrated Black communities in his pitch and made claims that pitted voters of color against immigrants, who he said were taking “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs.”

The efforts to boost support among Black voters seemed to have some success. He won a larger share of Black voters than he did in 2020, particularly among young Black men, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 120,000 voters in the 2024 election.

Overall, about 16% of Black voters supported Trump in November, while about 8 in 10 voted for Democrat Kamala Harris. But that represented an improvement for Trump from 2020, when only 8% of Black voters backed him and about 9 in 10 went for Democrat Joe Biden.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.