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Indiana mayor joins crowded field to lead national Democrats

SOUTH BEND,Ind. (AP) – An Indiana mayor is joining the crowded field to become the next head of the Democratic National Committee.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced his chairman candidacy Thursday. The 34-year-old is in his second term as mayor of the 100,000-person city.

Buttigieg says in a statement Democrats need “new leadership to deliver a fresh start” and that those solutions won’t originate in Washington. He becomes at least the sixth candidate to lead the DNC, including Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison.

Buttigieg served a seven-month deployment in Afghanistan in 2014 as a Naval Reserve office and gained attention last year when he announced he was gay in a newspaper column, five months before he won re-election with 80 percent of the vote.

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