'Galvanize not polarize,' Buttigieg tells Seattle crowd

Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg kicked off a weekend of fundraisers in Seattle by telling a crowd at the Moore Theatre on Saturday that Democrats can argue, but conflict is not the goal.

“Don’t get me wrong, there’s gonna have to be some fighting,” the South Bend, Ind., mayor said, “but I’m never gonna let us get to where it feels like the fight is the point.”

Buttigieg supporters, a mostly white middle-aged crowd at the Moore, carried "BOOT EDGE EDGE" signs and circled around the block in Saturday night’s drizzle. Inside they filled the Moore’s balconies and warmed up with cheers before the mayor took the stage. Tickets to the event cost between $18 and $1,000.

President Donald Trump was Buttigieg’s target throughout the night. At one time, Buttigieg asked the crowd to imagine the day when the sun rises and Trump is out of the White House.

But Buttigieg said he would “galvanize not polarize” if he secured the ticket.

His 15-minute “monologue” touched on his campaign’s values without directly attacking any of the Democratic candidates seen as more progressive, like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Buttigieg is one of the seven Democratic candidates who have qualified for Thursday’s debate in Los Angeles. He's been polling near the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire, but he's still behind Sanders, Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden elsewhere, including California.

As he did during his first stop in Seattle in July, Buttigieg extolled a list of values, including protecting reproductive rights, that he described as being stolen by one political party.

He advocated for the popular vote to decide the presidency — Trump lost that but won in the Electoral College — and said there should be constitutional reform regarding Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that prevented limits on independent expenditures in political campaigns.

Former Seattle City Councilmember Abel Pacheco joined Buttigieg onstage to pull written questions from the audience out of a fishbowl.

Asked about the country’s homelessness crisis, Buttigieg said he would develop two million more units to house seven million Americans.

“I don’t need to tell Seattle what we’re up against,” he said.

Four of the nine questions asked how Buttigieg would restore America’s image around the world should he win in 2020.

Outside the Moore, Caroline Stoebuck of Lake Forest Park was among Buttigieg supporters circling the block in the rain an hour before he spoke. She said other leading candidates have been around too long.

And as for Senator Elizabeth Warren, Stoebuck said, “In this climate I don’t see a female winning,.

"Pete’s a longshot, I realize, but he’s the best thing we have going.”

Buttigieg also had two fundraising events in Seattle on Sunday.

Rival Andrew Yang will be in Seattle on Monday night for a fundraiser.