Pete Buttigieg became the first 2020 presidential candidate to campaign in Houston in the new year on Monday. He spoke to a gathering at a private home in the part of the city known as The Heights, a popular historic district.

Early voting begins in Texas in just 42 days. Texas is one of the states that participate in Super Tuesday voting. His pitch is that after Election Day 2020, whoever the winner is will likely find a more divided America and he is just the guy to unify the country. He told several dozen people that the next president has to prioritize bringing the country together. “We’re going to need a president that prioritizes unifying the American people and bringing us together.”

Buttigieg is running in the centrist lane of the Democrat primary along with Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar. On two big issues, he is more moderate-leaning than either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, the far-left candidates – Medicare for All and gun control. Buttigieg wants an approach that allows Medicare for all who want it but also protects employees who want to keep their private insurance coverage. “We take a version of Medicare and make it available for anyone who wants to participate, but in the name of freedom, we’re going to trust you about whether you want it.”

On gun control, you may remember that Buttigieg pushed back on Beto O’Rourke’s dream of gun confiscation. He opposed Beto’s big idea of mandatory gun buybacks of AR-15s and AK-47s.

So far, Buttigieg has relied on his personal friendship with the Mayor of Austin, Steve Adler for guidance on how to campaign in Texas. He has not opened any campaign offices in the state. At this point, it is unlikely he will. The last CNN poll of the Democrat primary in Texas, according to Real Clear Politics, shows Buttigieg in fourth place – a distant fourth place behind Biden. Joe Biden is at 28.7%, Elizabeth Warren at 16.3%, Bernie Sanders at 13%, and Buttigieg at 6%. I don’t see Buttigieg’s path to catching fire in Texas to win the primary.

Though I occasionally see a political ad from the Biden or Steyer campaign, the candidate flooding the market in Houston is Michael Bloomberg. His ads are running multiple times every day. Last weekend Bloomberg was in neighboring Fort Bend County and he has hired a state director. It looks like Houstonians will continue to see Bloomberg’s ads, too.

Last weekend Mike Bloomberg campaigned in Fort Bend County, upped his Houston television buy to $4 million, and named Ashlea Turner, who worked on then-Houston Mayor Bill White’s 2010 campaign for governor, as state director of his presidential bid.

Biden, Sanders, and Warren all have hired state directors in Texas. Of the top four candidates, Buttigieg holds his own in fundraising. He has been concentrating on Iowa, though and the other early states. He rose to the first place spot in Iowa but now he’s behind Sanders. I think we’ll see that fluctuate from now until the Iowa caucuses. I think Bernie is having a little surge right now and Buttigieg may need more than the endorsement of actor Kevin Costner to win on caucus day.

So, Buttigieg is going to need more than a message of kumbaya in Texas. Democrats are clinging to the hope that Texas may be in play in 2020. Buttigieg has not won any head to head match-ups against Trump in Texas. As a matter of fact, the last poll taken shows Trump beating all of the Democrat candidates in Texas.

Even though he is trying to convince Texans of his moderate stances, he says something different on television. In his interview on CNN last weekend, he declared he would be the “most progressive” president in a half century. That seems to be Buttigieg’s biggest hurdle to overcome – he really wants to appear as a centrist yet he continues to veer to the far left. He can’t have it both ways.

.@PeteButtigieg: "I'm running based on what's possible. A bold policy agenda that would make me the most progressive president we've had in a half century." pic.twitter.com/za1O6fH65Z

— The Hill (@thehill) January 6, 2020

The unity riff is all fine and good but Buttigieg likes to call out Trump supporters as being racists. If you are a Trump supporter, Buttigieg thinks you are at least silently a racist. That doesn’t sound too unifying, does it?

Buttigieg has another event Tuesday in Houston and then he is off to Dallas. None of the events are big campaign rallies, which speaks to his lack of support here.