Pete Buttigieg has had a meteoric rise in his political career over the past few years—from serving as mayor of South Bend to running for president in 2020, not to mention his historic confirmation as President Joe Biden's Secretary of Transportation on February 2, 2021.
Luckily for Buttigieg, who is the first openly gay cabinet member to be Senate-confirmed, he's had his biggest cheerleader by his side to encourage him: his husband, Chasten Buttigieg. While supporting Pete throughout his campaign, Chasten amassed a devoted following of his own—one that stands nearly 600k Twitter followers strong. Mashable called him "the Twitter celebrity we deserve." Politico said at the time his husband was running for president that Chasten was "winning the 2020 spouse primary."
Before Pete ended his presidential campaign in March 2020, Chasten gave a speech that captured their devoted bond—one that intertwines the personal and the political. "About a year and a half ago, my husband came home from work and told me, well, he asked me, 'What do you think about running for president?' And I laughed. Not at him but at life. Because life gave me some interesting experiences on my way to find Pete. After falling in love with Pete, Pete got me to believe in myself again. And I told Pete to run because I knew there were other kids sitting out there in this country who needed to believe in themselves too," Chasten said.
The couple, who were married in 2018, have an incredibly sweet and supportive relationship which has won them—and their dogs—a devoted following. So devoted, in fact, that when the couple announced on Instagram that they had welcomed a newborn son and daughter—named Joseph August and Penelope Rose Buttigieg, respectively—they were immediately showered with tens of thousands of congratulatory comments. "Sending love to all 4 of you ❤️," wrote Ellen DeGeneres. "Congrats Dads!!!!!" added Jesse Tyler Ferguson . "Welcome to the world, precious Penelope and Joseph!" Glennon Doyle commented.
Below, a few key facts to know about Chasten, who, as the author of the memoir, I Have Something to Tell You, is a public figure in his own right.
Chasten and Pete met on a dating app.
A truly relatable modern couple! Pete and Chasten met in the summer of 2015 on Hinge, the app which seems to be rapidly eclipsing Tinder in terms of popularity. At the time, the two were living in different states, but per the Post, Chasten offered to visit Pete in South Bend. Their first meeting sounds like something right out of a romantic comedy—when Chasten got out of his car in front of Pete's house, they both said "Howdy" at the same time. "So gross," Chasten remarked to the Post. "But my heart fluttered."
Their first date carried on in similar rom-com fashion. They bonded over Scotch eggs, as you do, then watched a baseball game, which featured fireworks. “Literally, there were fireworks on our first date,” Chasten told The Times. “It was kind of ridiculous, I know, but I was hooked.”
Pete proposed in an unorthodox location.
Nothing says romance quite like Chicago's O'Hare Airport! But there's a story behind Pete's decision to propose at O'Hare.ccording to the couple's Time profile, it was in that airport that Chasten first saw Pete's dating profile on Hinge.
The couple were married at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. James in South Bend in June of 2018. And if their New York Times wedding announcement is anything to go by, the wedding was incredible:
Tacos from the Rico Suave food truck; sliders from South Bend’s the Beard & the Boss (even the pork was local, provided by Gunthorp Farms, a fourth-generation Indiana operation); beer from South Bend Brew Works; an assortment of regional cheeses from Oh Mamma’s deli; salads from Cafe Navarre; lattes and coffee from Zen Cafe, housed inside LangLab; artisanal chocolates from local Violet Sky chocolatier; specially created ice cream from the Outside Scoop, flavored with honey harvested from community gardens or whiskey from an Indiana distillery.
Yes hi, hello, is there a way for us to go back in time and crash this wedding, please?
Their family is growing.
In August 2021, Pete revealed on Twitter that he and his husband we're expanding their family. "For some time, Chasten and I have wanted to grow our family. We’re overjoyed to share that we’ve become parents! The process isn’t done yet and we’re thankful for the love, support, and respect for our privacy that has been offered to us. We can’t wait to share more soon," he wrote.
Just weeks later, on September 4, the Transportation Secretary revealed the new additions to their family: a newborn son and daughter. "Chasten and I are beyond thankful for all the kind wishes since first sharing the news that we’re becoming parents," he captioned a photo of him and Chasten holding their children. "We are delighted to welcome Penelope Rose and Joseph August Buttigieg to our family.
Chasten is a dog lover.
Just like the Bidens are proud owners of two German Shepards named Champ and Major, Chasten and Pete are dog parents, too. Their pups are named Truman and Buddy Buttigieg. The couple adopted Truman, a beagle-Labrador mix, in 2017. Buddy, a one-eyed beagle-pug mix, joined their household last year.
Truman and Buddy have a sizable social media following of their own–their Twitter account currently has a following of more than 90k–which is no surprise, because every single update is a joy.
Chasten is a ray of sunshine on social media.
If you generally find Twitter to be a bottomless pit of despair and rage that leaves you feeling much worse every time you log on, you might want to follow Chasten. His social feeds are relentlessly positive, even when he's touching on serious subject matter, and his Twitter generally features a mix of fun updates, premium dog content, and mindfulness tips.
R. Eric Thomas really summed it up over at Elle when he wrote: "Quite literally, if the relentlessly upbeat potential first spouse ever took a social media break I think I would spiral into a pit of despair that only a glint of light from Michelle Obama's Balenciaga boots could pull me out of."
You owe it to yourself to make Chasten's updates a staple of your social media diet.
Chasten had a difficult coming out journey.
Chasten Glezman (his given name) grew up in a working-class family in Michigan, and told The Washington Post that he often felt like a misfit alongside his brothers, who were into playing sports and hunting. “I would be inside reading Harry Potter or singing Celine Dion at the top of my lungs while my mom and I were dusting the cabinets," he said.
His family's reaction to his coming out at the age of 18 was not positive. “I don’t recall my parents specifically saying I couldn’t live at home anymore, but I was made to believe I needed to leave,” he told the New York Times. Leaving home was the beginning of a tough period in which Chasten sometimes slept on friends' couches, and sometimes slept in his car in the parking lot of his community college.
Eventually, his mother called and asked, "Will you come home?" Chasten recalled to the Washington Post. "And I cried and I went home immediately.” Though his relationship with his parents improved over time—they "proudly walked him down the aisle" when he married Pete—he remains estranged from his brothers.
"11 years ago, when I came out, I didn’t think there was a place for me in this world,” he recalled in a tweet in May, as he shared he and Pete's Time cover story. “10 months ago we said ‘I do.’ 1 month ago we said ‘let’s do this.’"
He's incredibly supportive of his husband.
Chasten used to be a junior high school teacher at Montessori Academy in Mishawaka, Indiana, having earned his master's in education at the nearby DePaul University. But after Pete announced he was running for president, Chasten left his job to support him full-time, alternating between joining Pete on the road and taking care of things at home.
Though he was incredibly supportive, Chasten has admitted that he wasn't sure how to react when Pete first announced his plans. “I laughed,” he told the Post. “I was like, ‘No, no, no—are you serious? Okay, what are we thinking here? I love you. I believe in you. You’re amazing. Do you think this would work?’"
Chasten opened up on Twitter about how he dealt with the regular separations from Pete. “Sometimes when he’s on the road and I’m missing him,” Chasten wrote in one tweet, “I just take a deep breath and watch this to remind myself what we’re here for.”
The Buttigiegs celebrated their first wedding anniversary in 2019.
“One year ago I married the love of my life," Pete wrote in an emotional June 16, 2019 Twitter update, as he marked his one-year wedding anniversary with Chasten. "I’m so thankful I found you, Chasten, and can’t wait to spend the rest of our life together.”
Meanwhile, Chasten posted some adorable couple pictures, and revealed that he was en route "to find this cute guy on the trail. Can’t believe it’s been one year.” We know it's used all the time but, these two really are relationship goals.
Chasten's memoir, I Have Something to Tell You, was published in 2020.
Chances are, you're part of the Chasten fan club—either you already were, or this article convinced you. In his recently published memoir, I Have Something to Tell You, you'll find the Chasten Buttigieg origin story, in his own words.
I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg
I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg
Earlier that year, Oprah Daily was lucky enough to publish an excerpt from the memoir about a particularly thrilling moment in Chasten and Pete's dating history: Pete, then a rising political star, invited Chasten to the White House's annual Christmas party, where he met none other than President Obama and the former First Lady.
Clearly, the refreshingly candid, funny memoir offers a one-of-a-kind perspective on Washington, D.C. But the memoir also explores his life before Pete—not all of it easy. In the book, Chasten publicly discloses incidents of domestic violence in a past relationship, and of sexual assault.
"I wanted to write my real story. And some of that was being really honest about what I thought, what I went through and what I experienced and navigated and some of it was heartbreaking," Chasten told USA Today.
The couple attended the 2021 presidential inauguration together.
Braving the January cold and wearing double masks, the couple bundled up in navy coats and scarves to watch President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris be sworn in at the Capitol. Approximately two weeks later, Buttigieg himself made headlines with his historic confirmation as Biden's transportation secretary.
For more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter.
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
