LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIAAN INDEPENDENT GRASSROOTS HISTORY2019 ✶ 2020
The original Los Angeles for Pete logo, featuring sun rays and palms A GRASSROOTS HISTORYLOS ANGELES · 2019–2020
The original Los Angeles for Pete campaign logo, with a sunrise and palm trees in blue, yellow, and cream
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE CAMPAIGN · 2019–2020

A city
showed up.

For Pete. For each other. For the belief that politics could bring people together.

This is the story of Los Angeles for Pete, told through the volunteers, photographs, and memories of a remarkable grassroots campaign.

Remember the movement
Los Angeles for Pete supporters holding signs together at a November 2019 debate watch party
THE PEOPLE MADE THE CAMPAIGNDEBATE WATCH · NOV 2019
LOS ANGELES FOR PETESCROLL TO EXPLORE
235

events in the official
Los Angeles for Pete tally

50+

volunteers at one 2019
community service event

12

new-volunteer orientations
reported in one January week

OUR STORY

It started
with people.

In 2019, people across Los Angeles County came together to support Pete Buttigieg's run for president. They brought their friends, their skills and their time.

Los Angeles for Pete was an independent, volunteer-led grassroots group. As it grew, organizers built regional teams so neighbors could lead in their own communities, backed by shared graphics, events, communications and volunteer tools.

Supporters met at farmers markets, knocked on doors, made calls, sent texts, hosted watch parties and served their communities. There were late nights, big ideas and a lot of showing up.

The seven-member grassroots organizing team at the final Super Tuesday gathering · March 3, 2020
BEHIND THE SCENES

The people
who held it together.

The grassroots organizing team of seven led Los Angeles for Pete, coordinating a much larger network of neighborhood organizers and volunteers across the county. This photograph shows the seven together at the final Super Tuesday gathering.

Beyond the public events, volunteers built the infrastructure that made them possible: the website, event calendar, printed materials, newsletters, training, communications and coordination between neighborhood teams.

Made possible by volunteers.
THE WORK

What showing up
looked like.

Some of the work was highly visible. Much of it happened quietly, in living rooms, behind laptops and in conversations with neighbors.

Volunteers in Pete apparel talking with the community near the Studio City farmers market
01 / IN THE COMMUNITY

Meet people where they are.

Farmers markets, neighborhood events and street-level outreach helped put a face to Pete's campaign.

Volunteers seated at an orientation presentation in January 2020
02 / WELCOMING VOLUNTEERS

Make room for everyone.

Orientation sessions and local meetings gave new supporters a way to take part, even if they had never organized before.

Six campaign volunteers standing together before or after canvassing in North Hollywood
03 / VOTER CONTACT

Every conversation counted.

Volunteers canvassed neighborhoods and reached voters by phone and text in the lead-up to California's primary.

People volunteering around piles of clothing at a community-service event in November 2019
04 / COMMUNITY SERVICE

Put belonging into action.

At a November 2019 Food on Foot service event, more than 50 supporters volunteered together.

“We've done a lot
with very little.”

Ray Yu · Email to the San Fernando Valley team · March 1, 2020

A FEW MILESTONES

From first hellos
to Super Tuesday.

Not every gathering made the newsletters. These are moments documented in contemporary emails and campaign records.

A community takes shape

Early Pete-Ups, event staffing and gatherings drew supporters together around Los Angeles.

Showing up through service

More than 50 supporters joined a Food on Foot volunteer effort. Around the same time, LA for Pete grew into regional organizing teams.

Teams across the county

Volunteers established a shared approach to local events, outreach, graphics, newsletters and communication.

More hands, more neighborhoods

Twelve volunteer orientations were reported in one January week, alongside meetings, watch parties and outreach.

The home stretch

Canvassers took to the streets while volunteers contacted voters, staffed farmers markets and explained California's voting process.

One last night together

After Pete suspended his presidential campaign on March 1, supporters gathered for a final Super Tuesday results watch party.

FROM THE PHOTO ARCHIVE

The faces.
The signs.
The good days.

Actual photographs preserved from Los Angeles for Pete events. Select a photograph to view it larger.

MARCH 3, 2020

One last
night together.

Our last gathering was the Super Tuesday results watch party. Pete had suspended his campaign two days earlier. We came together anyway, to celebrate the people and the work we had shared.

Just eight days later, on March 11, the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. Looking back, those final photographs hold a special kind of meaning.

Super Tuesday was March 3, 2020. The gathering extended into the evening, and some pictures may have been taken after midnight on March 4.

Historical dates: California Secretary of State World Health Organization

TO EVERYONE WHO SHOWED UP

What lasted was
the community.

To the volunteers who organized an event, made a call, opened their homes, brought a friend, printed a sign, knocked on a door or simply showed up: thank you.

This page preserves one moment in the story of Los Angeles, and the people who chose to be part of it.