Buttigieg Passes Sanders, Becomes Top-Three Democratic Nomination Favorite at +880

• Pete Buttigieg is rebounding in the 2020 Democratic Presidential race
• His average odds to win the Democratic nomination are +880
• Mayor Pete has overtaken Bernie Sanders (+950) as the third favorite

Don’t look now but Pete Buttigieg is rallying in the 2020 Democratic Presidential race. Mayor Pete got on his horse and raced past Bernie Sanders into third overall in this betting market.

Across the leading online sportsbooks, he’s listed at average odds of +880 in the 2020 Democratic Presidential nomination odds. Meanwhile, Sanders, runner-up to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nod in 2016, saw his odds lengthen of +950.

2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination Odds

Odds taken on Oct. 23, 2019.

Sportsbooks list Buttigieg and Sanders in a dead heat for third spot at +800 in their Democratic nomination futures.

Buttigieg Battling Back

A young, gay, Afghanistan war veteran and mayor of a midwestern US city, when Buttigieg first arrived on the scene, he was the immediate darling of the woke folk. He checked off a lot of boxes.

As rapidly as he rose to prominence, it looked as though Buttigieg would fade from view, another young hotshot who was more sizzle than steak. As recently as September 25th, his odds had lengthened to +1400, the longest line on Buttigieg since the campaign began.

Lately, though, he’s come up big. Mayor Pete did the Sunday talk show circuit on the weekend and raised some doubt about the feasability of the Medicare For All plan that is so vital to the campaigns of Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. He met last week with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who made some campaign recommendations to Mayor Pete.

He appeared on the Tonight Show alongside Jimmy Fallon and Scarlett Johansson. Buttigieg displayed a self deprecating sense of humor when assessing how he’s portrayed on Saturday Night Live.

This combination of personality and fact-based debate seems to be resonating with the masses. The latest polls for the Iowa caucus put Buttigieg third at 13 percent, trailing only Warren (18 percent) and Biden (17 percent).

With 29 percent of voters still undecided, Iowa remains up for grabs.

Sanders Slipping Away?

The same poll showed Sanders down fourth at nine percent. The 78-year-old Senator from Vermont suffered a heart attack earlier this month, and that certainly has shaken the faith in his ability to govern over the four-year term of a Presidency.

But Sanders is also displaying resiliency, even if he doesn’t have the backing of the polls or the oddsmakers. His campaign raised a whopping $25.3 million in the last quarter. That means even if he starts out slowly in the Primaries, Sanders will have the financial backing to give him staying power in the race.

Is It Warren’s To Lose?

Buttigieg’s assault on Warren’s health care plan made him the first to be able to put any dents in what had proven until then to be a bulletproof campaign by the Massachusetts Senator.

Warren remains the odds-on favorite to get the nomination at -110.

Prominent Democrat Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Bill Clinton Administration, insists it’s a three-person race between Warren, Sanders and Joe Biden and the rest of the crowded field need to step aside for the good of the party.

That’s not going to happen but Reich is right. He may even be overestimating the chances of Sanders being there at the end. This will come down to a battle between Warren and Biden.

Everyone else is just along for the ride.

Pick: Elizabeth Warren (-110)