You may be familiar with “catfishing,” the act of creating a fake online identity for the purposes of deception. The principle of “beardfishing” is one of deception, too: A (usually baby-faced) man grows a beard in order to disguise his delicate character.
Pete Buttigieg, former secretary of the Department of Transportation, is guilty of beardfishing.
“He has a beard, a splitting maul, and a house in Michigan. Is that enough to convince America that he’s a man of the people?” asks Graeme Wood, who profiled Buttigieg for The Atlantic, in a piece published Tuesday. (RELATED: Pete Buttigieg Admits Democratic Party Failed To Win Over Low-Income Voters In 2024)
The answer is “no.” For black Democrats, at least.
The Yale Youth Poll asked 3,426 registered voters in fall 2025, “If the 2028 Democratic presidential primary were held today, and these were the candidates, which candidate would you vote for?”
Buttigieg secured 4% of the black vote. The Yale Youth poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.7 percentage points for the full sample.
Zachary Donnini, senior advisor of the Yale Youth Poll, described the result as “one of the stronger [b]lack crosstabs for Buttigieg” that he’d seen in recent polling. Black Americans have reliably voted for the Democratic Party for decades. President Donald Trump has made inroads with black voters, earning 15% of the black vote in the 2024 presidential election, according to Pew Research Center. That’s up from 8% in 2020.
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 10: U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (R) and husband Chasten Buttigieg and their children Penelope and Gus attend the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House on April 10, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
An Emerson College poll conducted June 2025 found that Buttigieg had 0% support from black voters, when participants were asked which Democrat they would support for the presidential nomination in 2028.
SiriusXM host Stephen A. Smith explained the result to Bill Maher in August 2025.
Buttigieg is a “nice guy,” Maher offered.
“He doesn’t move us,” Smith said. “I respect the man. I’ve interviewed him before. Very nice man, highly intelligent. But you gotta be able to move us, bro. He doesn’t move us.”
“You can speculate as to why that is, I’m not going there. He doesn’t move us.”
Permit me to speculate: It’s because Buttigieg, a man, is married to a man.
Support for same-sex marriage among black Americans rose from 41% in 2014 to 59% in 2022, according to a 2023 study. Growing support for same-sex marriage doesn’t necessarily translate into acceptance of politicians in same-sex relationships.
An internal focus group conducted by Buttigieg’s campaign in 2019 found that his “being gay was a barrier for these voters, particularly for the men who seemed deeply uncomfortable even discussing it,” according to The State, which first divulged details of the report.
“That’s not my thing but I wouldn’t want to know that as a candidate,” said one female focus group participant under 40, according to The State. “Too much information.” (RELATED: Pete Buttigieg Says Dems Have Become ‘Too Attached’ To ‘Failing’ Status Quo)
“I’ll go ahead and say it,” a male participant reportedly added. “I don’t like the fact that he threw out there that he lives with his husband.”
There you go.
Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC
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