The 2015 South Bend, Indiana mayoral election was held on November 3, 2015. The election was won by the incumbent mayor, Pete Buttigieg, who was reelected with more than 80 percent of the votes, defeating Republican Kelly Jones. The election coincided with races for the Common Council and for South Bend City Clerk.
Before facing each other in the general election, Buttigieg and Jones each won their parties' nominations in primaries, with Buttigieg fending-off a challenge from Common Council member Henry Davis Jr. and Jones winning an uncontested primary.
Buttigieg handily won the general election, facing only a weak Republican competitor in a heavily Democratic city.
After being reelected to a second term as mayor, Buttigieg would later seek national office by first running in the 2017 Democratic National Committee chairmanship election, and by later running for the presidency of the United States in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. In 2021, President Joe Biden appointed Buttigieg to be the United States Secretary of Transportation.
Nominations Primaries were held May 5. During the primaries, St. Joseph County, where South Bend is located, saw voter turnout of 12% in its various primary elections. This was a decrease of 4% from the primaries four years prior. Absentee voting ballots in the South Bend primaries numbered at 2,133.
Democratic primary Incumbent mayor Pete Buttigieg declared his intention to seek reelection on November 18, 2014. Buttigieg filed to run for reelection on January 19, 2015.
Buttigieg campaigned for renomination upon the progress made during his first term as mayor. This included declining unemployment, new development in the city's downtown, ongoing infrastructure improvements (including the city's "Smart Streets" initiative), and improvements in public safety. He also noted recent economic development announcements by the city that promised to generate $180 million in new investment and up to 1,400 new jobs. Buttigieg also noted that the prior year alone had seen the announcement of 1,349 new jobs. Buttigieg also touted the strength of the city's finances. Another of his administrations accomplishments which Buttigieg noted was the ahead-of-schedule Vacant & Abandoned Properties Initiative, which sought to either renovate or demolish 1,000 abandoned homes in as many days. He also touted his efforts to advance the city's use of technology, pointing to the reworking of the city's 3-1-1 system. Another success he claimed was the simplification of the city's tax abatement process. Buttigieg also touted himself as a champion for parks improvements, pointing to a $5.6 million parks bond approved by the Common Council in January. Buttigieg's plans for his second term included creating universal pre-kindergarten and improving public transportation. He also pledged to explore ways of cutting the cost of the federally mandated sewer project the city was to undertake, which was at the time estimated to cost $600 million. Buttigieg responded to criticisms over his transparency by saying, "I would stack our record on transparency up against anybody in this area or anywhere else."
Buttigieg's opponent was outgoing 2nd district South Bend Common Council member Henry Davis Jr., who filed his candidacy on February 6, 2015. Davis had been a member of the Common Council since 2008, having been elected in 2007, after winning an upset primary election victory over a twelve-year incumbent Common Council member. Davis claimed that he was running for mayor to "restore justice and fairness in the city of South Bend." Davis was critical of Buttigieg's policies, which he claimed were inadequate at addressing the city's problems. He criticized Buttigieg's record on crime, vacant housing, financial management, government transparency, unemployment, and economic development. He characterized Buttigieg as both a corrupt and incompetent leader. Davis opposed signature initiatives of Buttigieg. He criticized the "Smart Streets" initiative as ill-conceived and wasteful, and criticized the Vacant & Abandoned Properties Initiative as destructive. Davis denied claims that crime had declined in the city during Buttigieg's tenure, arguing instead that under Buttigieg's administration crime had actually gotten, "more persistent". He accused Buttigieg of misrepresenting crime data to minimize the optics of its severity. Despite the fact that the city had received the strong bond credit rating of AA, Davis characterized the city as being mired by unsustainable debt. Davis also argued that, among other things, Buttigieg had failed to make good on his promise of restoring the city's neighborhoods. Contrary to Buttigieg's talk of revitalization, for which Buttigieg had pointed to new developments, Davis characterized the city's downtown as "failing". Davis questioned the legitimacy of job gains touted by Buttigieg. Davis was also critical of Buttigieg's handling of a police department scandal involving wiretapping by former police chief Darryl Boykins. This scandal, and Buttigieg's handling of it, had been perceived by political analysts as having harmed Buttigieg's relations with South Bend's African American population. In addition, he accused Buttigieg of directing no-bid contracts to political allies and donors. He also alleged that the mayor was pushing privatization schemes from which his political donors would profit. Davis amplified other accusations of corruption in Buttigieg's administration. Davis charged that some residents felt that they been left behind, or even marginalized, by the changes made under Buttigieg's leadership. At two points amid the campaign, Davis used his position as a Common Council member to oppose bond issues championed by Buttigieg, both of which were passed by the Common Council despite his opposition. In January, he opposed a $5.6 million parks bond championed by Buttigieg, questioning its size and voicing concern about funds not having been earmarked for specific projects. He also opposed a $25 million bond issue to convert Main and Michigan Streets from one-way to two-way streets as part of Buttigieg's "Smart Streets" initiative, criticizing it as a misplaced priority. Davis pledged that if he were elected mayor he would implement, community policing and minority recruitment in the police force as means to decrease crime. Davis touted his own record of working to combat illegal parking and dumping in the city. While Buttigieg was touting his Vacant & Abandoned Homes Initiative, Davis was touting his own record of working to slow down the demolitions being undertaken for the initiative.
Davis' candidacy faced scandals, including headlines of his past DUI arrest. Davis also had faced controversies from the previous year, including having posted an explicit image to his Facebook page and a city resident filing a complaint against him over a message on his Twitter account about Republicans and abortion.
Davis was African American. No ethnic minority had ever been elected to a full-time executive office in St. Joseph County (which would change after the concurrent 2015 South Bend City Clerk election was won by Kareemah Fowler).
Buttigieg vastly out-fundraised Davis.
Originally also challenging Buttigieg was businessman David Frank. He was removed from the ballot by the election board due to irregularities with his residency.
In the final week of the race, Buttigieg ran advertisements in which he encouraged voters to also vote for Kareemah Fowler in the Democratic primary for South Bend City Clerk. He also sent out mailers carrying the same message. Fowler would ultimately win her primary in a landslide, carrying all but one precinct and winning 75% of the vote, defeating longtime member of the Common Council Derek Dieter. Many attributed Fowler's massive margin of victory to Buttigieg's support.
Buttigieg was favored to win the primary.
Endorsements
Result In the primary, Buttigieg carried 80 of the city's 85 precincts. Davis carried four precincts in his own 2nd district (which he had represented in the South Bend Common Council since 2008) and one precinct in the neighboring 6th district.
Davis, an African American himself, had performed competitively with Buttigieg, and in some cases stronger than Buttigieg, in several largely African American neighborhoods. The five precincts Buttigieg lost to Davis were all heavily African American precincts. The largest vote deficit Buttigieg had in any one of these districts was 111 (in precinct 163, which was 70% African American, and where Buttigieg received only 52 votes to Davis' 163). These districts were geographically contiguous with each other and were located in the heart of South Bend's African American community. In these five precincts, Buttigieg received a combined 172 votes, which equated to over 21% of the vote. Buttigieg, however, did well in other areas of South Bend with significant African American populations. For example, in the city's near northwest side, in precincts 102, 108 and 115, Buttigieg received a 67% of the combined vote from a population that was 49% African American and 39% white. Buttigieg argued that, while he had room to improve his relations with the city's African American population, Davis' and his respective performance in the five contiguous precincts that Davis carried may have had more to do with the fact that these precincts were geographically close to Davis' residence (and all in/bordering the district Davis represented) than it had to do with the ethnicity of voters in those precincts.
Buttigieg won in all of the city's six districts, including Davis' own 2nd district, which was heavily African American. However, he only won the 2nd district by 60 votes. The two districts where Buttigieg performed his worst and Davis, conversely, performed his best (the 2nd and 6th districts) are the city's only majority-minority districts.
Benefiting Buttigieg's performance was that many areas where he enjoyed higher levels of support had higher voter turnout than other areas of the city.
After losing to Buttigieg, Davis reversed his decision to forgo reelection to the South Bend Common Council, and would unsuccessfully run for reelection to South Bend Common Council as an independent, losing to Democratic nominee Regina Williams-Preston. Davis would subsequently return to office four years later, when he successfully ran for his former seat as a Democrat after Williams-Preston opted not to seek reelection and instead run in the 2019 mayoral election.
Results by district District Buttigieg Davis Total Votes % Votes % 1 1,532 74.51% 524 25.49% 2,056 2 859 51.81% 799 48.19% 1,658 3 1,367 87.13% 202 12.87% 1,569 4 1,961 86.81% 298 13.19% 2,259 5 1,831 90.46% 193 9.54% 2,024 6 819 67.80% 389 32.20% 1,208
Republican primary Kelly Jones was unopposed in the Republican primary.
Jones was a jewelry maker who had previously run unsuccessfully for a school board seat. She had first considered running for mayor as a Democrat before running as a Republican. Jones was politically little-known when she launched her candidacy, and would subsequently fail to gain much notability during her candidacy.
Republicans had unsuccessfully sought to recruit a more serious challenger to Buttigieg.
Result The number of voters in the 2015 Republican primary was even lower than it had been in 2011, which had previously been the lowest Republican primary turnout in modern South Bend mayoral election history.
General election