Mayor Pete sure looks like a guy who is preparing to run for president again. The Secretary of Transportation and his husband, Chasen, along with their adopted twins recently moved their home base in Indiana to a new home base in Michigan. Now, why would that be, especially now when the family lives in the Washington, D.C. area because of his cabinet position in the Biden administration?

Is Pete Buttigieg noticing the writing on the wall? Joe Biden is being pushed aside due to his age and general incompetence and he’s openly being advised to not run for re-election in 2024. A second bid by Kamala for the Democrat nomination is likely a non-starter, given her abysmal performance in office as vice-president. Who is number three on the list? Maybe Buttigieg. He’s been the administration’s wonder boy, though for no other apparent reason than his sexuality. His move from South Bend, where he was the former mayor, to Michigan, raises an eyebrow.

Traverse City, Michigan is the hometown of Chasen Buttigieg. A piece in Politico explains that the move was made so that the family can be near Chasen’s parents and other family members. Since the addition of the twins, his parents have helped out with child care, or so the story goes. It’s perfectly understandable that Chasen and Mayor Pete would want their children to grow up surrounded by family but how is that happening now when they live in Washington, D.C., and grandma and grandpa are living in Michigan? The excuse of moving to be closer to family doesn’t ring true, for now anyway. Politico goes on to note that it is a savvy political move, though. Michigan is certainly a more blue state than Indiana. Pete is politically ambitious. It makes sense if he’s looking down the road to future political office. Buttigieg is laying the groundwork now.

Buttigieg’s move was for family reasons, specifically, his husband’s family, a Department of Transportation spokesperson said. “Moving to Chasten’s hometown of Traverse City allowed them to be closer to his parents, which became especially important to them after they adopted their twins, often relying on Chasten’s parents for help with child care,” the person said.

But the move also has another significant benefit. With two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor, Michigan is a much more hospitable state for a fellow Democrat with political ambitions. It’s also in the running to replace Iowa as the first presidential nominating contest. Buttigieg has been grip-and-grinning the state’s politicos as well, visiting the annual Mackinac Policy Conference in recent weeks.

Regardless of his motivations, Buttigieg and his allies have made a number of moves that better position the secretary for his political future.

This month his former political action committee, Win The Era, began the process of endorsing and giving resources to candidates for the midterms. The PAC’s executive director organized a campaign reunion with Buttigieg and former staffers in March at metrobar in Washington. “The Secretary attended the event in his personal capacity,” a Department of Transportation (DOT) spokesperson said. While Buttigieg stepped down from the PAC when he joined the administration, it has the email list and other assets that he’d likely carry into any future campaign.

Buttigieg also attended a Democratic National Committee’s LGBTQ gala in New York City last Monday. Afterward, he and husband Chasten grabbed drinks with one of his 2020 campaign’s top political aides, LIS SMITH, and Michigan state Sen. MALLORY McMORROW, who has emerged as an up-and-coming party star.

The White House said it had asked Buttigieg to attend the DNC events.

It sure would be nice if Pete applied so much energy and planning into this current job as Secretary of Transportation. There is still a supply chain problem, as well as travel nightmares in airports, for example. There is no need to say that Buttigieg can walk and chew gum at the same time because we are painfully aware that no one in this administration can do that. It seems to have taken the cancelation of one of his own flights to realize that there is a problem with air travel. This is the least aware administration I can ever remember.

Pete’s working on his exposure to Black voters, too. Remember, during his first run for president, he had problems gaining any interest from Black voters, especially in South Bend. He attended the annual international Rainbow PUSH Coalition with Jesse Jackson. And, he arranged to have a stop at the Transit Tech Career and Technical High School in Brooklyn to be filmed by a BET film crew. He shut out the members of the transit press corps from attending that event. The press wasn’t happy. They should have caused a stink about that and the lack of transparency but I don’t recall seeing any press reports complaining about being shut out. Even when the press corps is being abused and denied access to do their job, they still cover for this administration.

“Secretary Buttigieg visited Transit Tech High School in New York City – which is largely made up of Black students and students of color who are learning about careers in public transit,” said a DOT spokesperson. “BET was an ideal partner to reach the students and young people that we wanted to reach.” A DOT spokesperson noted that the department regularly gives exclusives to national news outlets on site visits and inspections of major infrastructure.

We’ll look for video clips from that visit in future campaign ads.

In the meantime, Pete can use the goodies found in the bipartisan infrastructure bill to raise his profile. He can hold press conferences and rallies with politicians around the country as he passes out taxpayer money for bridges and roads and other projects. Things may be getting interesting if Pete is truly making a move toward 2024. He hasn’t really done anything of note to justify a second run so he’s going to have to raise the bar. Voters weren’t particularly favorable to him in 2020 and they will remember he’s in charge of keeping the supply chain moving now, as well as easing travel woes now. He doesn’t have a good report card so far.