A politician of Maltese descent, Pete Buttigieg, has announced his candidacy for Chair of the Democratic Party's National Committee in the United States.

Mr Buttigieg, who turns 35 later this month, is currently mayor of South Bend, Indiana. 

He was born in Indiana and attended Harvard College, where he was president of the Harvard Institute of Politics Student Advisory Committee. He received a first class honors degree in philosophy, politics and economics in 2007 from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. 

He was elected mayor of South Bend on November 8, 2011 with 74 per cent of the vote, becoming the youngest mayor of a US city with at least 100,000 residents.

In 2014 he served for seven months in Afghanistan as a lieutenant in the US Navy Reserves. 

He was re-elected mayor in 2015.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the US Democratic Party, which is currently regrouping after the Republican Party won the presidency and control of both the US Senate and the House.

The national committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the United States for local, state, and national office.

The election of the Chair will take place on February 23–26. There will be at least four other candidates including Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota who is backed by, among others, former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.