Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Chasten Buttigieg, husband of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, speaks to Houghton County Democrats at a canvassing event at Super 8 in Houghton Saturday morning.

HOUGHTON — With 17 days left to go before Election Day, Chasten Buttigieg had a message for Houghton County Democrats looking to get out and volunteer: Campaigning can’t just be yard signs and Facebook memes.

“The best thing you can do right now is knock on doors and tell your story,” said Buttigieg, the husband of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We need you to go tell your story, whether it’s in your church group, your book club, or around the dinner table with your family … it’s not going to be anything that those of us surrogates are doing on social media or in the news that’s going to move that voter the way you can move that voter.”

Buttigieg spoke to a group of more than 60 people at a Houghton County Democratic Party meeting at Super 8 in Houghton Saturday morning. He also made appearances in Baraga and Marquette.

Growing up in Northern Michigan, he’d had it drilled in him that “you don’t want to ruffle any feathers” by talking about politics.

“…Whether you want to mess with politics or not, politics is going to mess with you, because politics is deeply personal,” said Buttigieg, a former middle school teacher. “Politics is around the Thanksgiving table when we’re talking about whether or not we can afford our prescription drugs, when we’re talking about lockdown drills at school.”

Those one-on-one conversations can be hard, but people need to share their “whys” behind their support, Buttigieg said.

He shared some of his reasons for backing the Harris campaign with the crowd.

Buttigieg remembered before the Affordable Care Act, when his mother got diagnosed with cancer and had to slide her prescriptions back though the pneumatic tube at the Walgreen’s drive-through because she couldn’t afford them. He worried about whether his daughter would grow up with fewer rights than his generation or his grandmother’s generation. And he recalled how both he and Pete were able to stay in the ICU with their son when he was sick without “some hospital administrator coming into our room and asking to see a birth certificate or asking which one of us was the real father.” Because of the ACA, he said, they also didn’t have to worry about a medical bill that would bankrupt the family.

“That’s just one of my ‘whys,’ because when you’re holding your kid in the ICU, the only thing that you should have to worry about is whether or not they’re going to be OK,” he said.

Although state or national representatives often visit the Copper Country, having surrogates for national campaigns has been rarer. Donald Trump, Jr., gave a campaign speech for Trump to a crowd of more than 800 at the Houghton County Memorial Airport in 2020.

Buttigieg said his visit is in part a recognition of Michigan’s importance in the race after it flipped for former President Donald Trump in 2016 by about 10,700 votes — about two votes per precinct, as he noted in Saturday’s speech. But it was also a reflection of his personal ties to the region, he said.

While Saturday was his first time in Houghton, he’s made many visits over the years to Baraga, where his great-grandparents lived and where many family members still remain. He often spent summers out at camp fishing on the Sturgeon River.

“So much of our childhood is spent in these woods and on these waters,” he said in an interview after his speech. “And I really care about protecting the climate, protecting our natural resources, taking climate seriously. Also, I’ve got family who grew up in union jobs, I’m a product of public education, and these are all things I want to either protect or get better.”

Afterwards, Buttigieg stuck around to speak with Houghton County Democrats, many of whom were signing up to go door-to-door.

Inga Johnson, who lives near Houghton, plans on canvassing via phone calls to accommodate her busy schedule, which includes two jobs. She said she’d been inspired to volunteer by some “pretty scary stuff” from Trump, including multiple references to jailing his political opponents.

Johnson praised Buttigieg’s speech, saying “he spoke from the heart” about the things that had impacted him.

“Banging somebody on the head with ‘You’ve got to vote this way or that’ is not helpful, because it’s not going to make an impact on people,” she said. “So when you share from your heart, your ‘why’ of what you’re doing, it is important.”