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.”