WASHINGTON — Pete Buttigieg returned to Iowa this week for his first public occasion since successful the state’s 2020 Democratic presidential caucuses with a brand new look, altering up his youthful, clean-shaven look with a darkish, scruffy beard.
The previous secretary of transportation’s bristly makeover has been making headlines and producing buzz forward of a possible 2028 presidential run. One of many celebration’s higher messengers, Buttigieg has been searching for out new audiences in his case towards Donald Trump’s administration, together with on right-leaning platforms with principally male viewerships the place beards typically scream man.
“It was very uncommon in my former life that I may go greater than a day with out shaving,” he defined lately.
After final yr’s disastrous election end result for Democrats, during which younger males shifted towards Trump, outstanding Democratic officers are making a concentrated effort to attraction to apolitical males below 30, together with on podcasts and sports activities radio exhibits. Some are pairing this with tougher-looking aesthetics that, till lately, have been much more in style among the many MAGA set.
Each of Trump’s elder sons, Eric and Don Jr., grew beards throughout their father’s first time period, parading their machismo on searching and fishing journeys throughout the nation. It took him some time, however Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) lastly grew a decent-looking beard in 2018 in a preview of his political makeover from longtime partisan bomb-thrower to bipartisan-minded lawmaker.
And Vice President JD Vance broke the furry ceiling in 2024 by changing into the primary major-party nominee with facial hair in 75 years, placing him in an advantageous place to inherit the MAGA motion in 2028 regardless of all his unshaven criticism of Trump within the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. If he runs in a couple of years, as is predicted, he may grow to be the primary bearded president since Benjamin Harrison in 1893.
Extra Democrats are actually attempting to achieve an analogous edge. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, one other potential 2028 contender who has been rallying towards Republican cuts to social security internet applications throughout the nation, joined the Senate beard caucus lately. His facial hair provides off extra of a 5 o’clock shadow, as if to say, “I don’t have time to shave, I’m too busy combating Trump.”
Arizona’s Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego has rocked a strong beard for over 20 years now. However the Marine Corps veteran’s robust discuss Trump at a rally within the battleground state of Pennsylvania final week, in addition to his rollout of a brand new immigration plan that will increase border enforcement, has additionally grown hypothesis a couple of presidential run.
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Beards and mustaches have been extra widespread amongst politicians within the early- and mid-Twentieth century, however their prevalence declined for a wide range of causes, together with altering social norms and the rise of tv. Analysis has discovered that members of Congress with facial hair have been perceived as extra masculine, but in addition that girls could also be much less more likely to vote for candidates with facial hair.
Christopher Oldstone-Moore, a professor at Wright State College and writer of the 2015 guide “Of Beards and Males: The Revealing Historical past of Facial Hair,” believes that the world could also be coming into its “fifth bearded period,” stretching from at this time’s hipster beards all the way in which again to Hadrian, the Roman emperor.
Right now’s politicians, he argued, are merely responding to broader cultural traits, together with Trump’s wins over two feminine Democratic presidential candidates.
“Mendacity behind quite a lot of the political currents is a complete dialogue about masculinity,” he stated in an interview with HuffPost. “What’s the standing of males in society? Have a look at all the problems that drive the tradition battle; all of them revolve round gender.”
“The fitting has been main within the beard motion lately, and I believe the left has been attempting to play catch-up,” he added.
Murphy first chided HuffPost when approached for this story, suggesting we give attention to larger points. Which, honest.
However then he joked he was rising a “democracy beard,” and that he’d eliminate it as soon as Trump stopped forcing a constitutional disaster by defying authorized rulings and trampling on the powers of Congress.
“That looks like a longer-term mission, and this factor’s beginning to itch, so I don’t know,” he stated earlier this week, suggesting he could as a substitute shave it if the Boston Celtics basketball staff received the NBA championship. (Robust information on that entrance.)
Gallego, in the meantime, referred to as himself “the OG” of beards and welcomed his fellow Democratic colleagues to the membership. Requested if he would ever eliminate his, he stated, “My spouse would most likely divorce me.”
“The fitting has been main within the beard motion lately, and I believe the left has been attempting to play catch-up.”
– Christopher Oldstone-Moore, writer, “Of Beards and Males: The Revealing Historical past of Facial Hair”
Republican members of the Senate beard caucus — which incorporates Todd Younger of Indiana and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma — teased the newcomers, suggesting their fuzz was about extra than simply appears to be like.
“Perhaps Democrats are listening to the voters and discovering they have to be extra like Republicans,” Cruz chuckled to HuffPost.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who grew a properly trimmed white beard a bit harking back to Santa Claus earlier this yr earlier than shaving it off on the urging of his spouse, stated he believed Democrats have been rising facial hair to make themselves look “rugged, extra man-of-the-people type of factor.”
He added: “They most likely must do it with coverage, as a substitute.”
Seung Min Kim / The Related Press
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), considered one of two mustachioed members of the Senate, stated he was amazed by the expansion of follicles in a legislative physique the place kinds because the early Twentieth century have been strictly clean-cut and traditionalist.
“After I first got here to the Senate [in 2010], I don’t assume there was every other facial hair right here,” Hoeven instructed HuffPost. “When [Maine Sen.] Angus King got here to the Senate, he confirmed up together with his mustache, he was the second mustache.”
“Then the goatee got here on and the Van Dyke,” he continued. “You then had some guys — Hombre Lobo [“Werewolf” in Spanish], which is what I name Ted Cruz, went with the expanded Van Dyke. Then, after that, the beard factor took over. It’s superb what number of beards we received round right here.”
“Right here’s the factor,” Hoeven warned. “Some males can develop a great beard, and a few males, not a lot. So it actually relies on whether or not you’ll be able to develop a great beard.”
Different Democratic senators, like Raphael Warnock of Georgia and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, are sticking with the extra controversial alternative of a goatee. However Warnock has no qualms about his. “I’m for the goatees,” he declared proudly.
As for Buttigieg, who hasn’t but determined to stay with a beard, consultants say he ought to maintain it.
“When somebody like Pete decides, ‘I’m going to develop a beard,’ that’s saying he’s a really critical candidate,” Oldstone-Moore stated. “I believe he’s considering, ‘Perhaps a beard may give me, actually, extra of an edge,’ an edgy, robust look. I believe it helps him.”
Full disclosure: The writer of this story has a beard.
