The political and faith journey of South Bend's 'Mayor Pete'

In the middle of the second round of national debates among Democratic presidential candidates, millions of Americans have been increasingly curious about that mayor with the strange last name from South Bend, Indiana.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37, is a two-term mayor who was first elected in South Bend in 2011 as the second youngest mayor in its history. In almost eight years as mayor, he worked to lure tech companies to the city struggling to move beyond its dying industrial base. He led a successful campaign to reclaim 1,000 deteriorating or abandoned houses in 1,000 days. He's acquired necessary funding for expensive public works projects that had been put on hold.

South Bend reelected him for a second term in November 2015 with 80% of the vote. And that landslide came after he'd announced the previous June in the South Bend Tribune that he is gay. Buttigieg took that risky step, stating he wanted to be transparent with the people of the city.

After years of struggle, he said, he understood that his sexual orientation was "just a fact of life, like having brown hair, and part of who I am."

Now, as the youngest Democratic candidate, he is the focus of national interest.