Buttigieg challenges political status quo in new book ‘Next’

Pete Buttigieg — who has said he’s leaning toward a 2028 presidential run — is penning a book that he describes as focused on taking “big swings to reform our political system.”

The former Transportation secretary announced the Jan. 26 release of his new book, “Next,” on Tuesday.

The book, Buttigieg said in a video posted on Instagram, is “not a policy manual.”

“It’s an account of how we got here and an argument about what could happen if America takes big swings to reform our political system. If we do that, we can have a life that is better, not just better than today, but better than before,” Buttigieg, 44, said.

Simon Six and Avid Reader Press, trade divisions at publisher Simon & Schuster, said in his book the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., “makes the urgent case for seizing the current moment of political rupture as a chance to deliver transformative improvements that the majority of Americans demand” and “lays out a vision for addressing the profound challenges facing our country today.”

With the book, the publisher said, “no matter who the next American president will be, if you are reading ‘Next,’ you are holding our nation’s future in your hands.”

From then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in 2006 with “The Audacity of Hope,” to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) prior to their 2024 presidential runs, authoring a book has almost become a rite of passage for political candidates ahead of their White House bids.

Buttigieg, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said in an August interview on “The Diary of a CEO” that he was favoring another run for office in 2028.

“I think I’m more inclined than not, but there’s so much we don’t know,” he said at the time.