How to pronounce ‘Buttigieg’ - the Democrat candidate with an impressive $7m in campaign contributions for 2020

Mr Buttigieg is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and was little known in the US just a couple of months ago

Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s campaign has announced surprisingly high fundraising figures from the first quarter of his 2020 campaign for president, marking an impressive haul for a candidate with an odd-sounding name who was little known beyond his Indiana community just months ago.

Mr Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, raised $7m during the first three months of 2019, according to figures made available through his campaign.

Those fundraising figures are the first to be made publicly available among the leading contenders for the democratic nomination.

Mr Buttigieg — whose name is pronounced “boot-edge-edge” — has been the mayor of South Bend since 2012, and before that served in the US military.

The candidate is the youngest in the Democratic field, and the only openly gay politician in a race marked by an unprecedented level of diversity.

The rest of the Democratic field will be required to make their campaign fundraising totals available over the next two weeks, with a final deadline set for 15 April.

Fundraising has already become an important signifier of candidate strength in the 2020 race, and qualification for primary debates hinges on things like the number of donors a candidate attracts.

But, while Mr Buttigieg’s $7m is impressive, it is likely to be dwarfed by other candidates like senator Bernie Sanders and former representative Beto O’Rourke, who both raised roughly $6m during the first day of their candidacies alone.