Iowa

Iowa Caucusgoer Pulls Buttigieg Vote After Learning He's Gay, Video Shows

“I don’t want anybody like that in the White House,” the woman said after learning that the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is married to a man

The Time magazine cover photo didn’t do it. Nor did the March appearance on ABC’s “The View” or a year’s worth of digital and television news stories.

It was not until Monday night — after casting her caucus vote for presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg — that an Iowa Democratic caucus voter, known only as “Geert,” first learned that the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is gay and married a man in 2018, NBC News reported.

“Are you saying he has a same-sex partner?” the woman asked in a now viral video that has garnered almost 3 million views on Twitter. “Are you kidding?”

Nikki van den Heever, a Buttigieg campaign precinct captain, made an effort to appeal to the voter, who was otherwise unidentified in the video.

“The whole point of it is, though, he’s a human being, right? Just like you and me, and it shouldn’t really matter,” she said, in one of several retorts delivered in a calm, respectful manenr.

Laura Hubka, the Democratic Party chair for Howard County, Iowa, tweeted her praise of van den Heever’s handling of the situation, saying she “is a wonderful example of Cresco,” referring to the Iowa town where the exchange took place, and that “this is what it’s all about.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com.

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