directly or forcefully.

In early 2015, Pence was grappling with an HIV outbreak in southern Indiana and facing calls from political leaders, including some fellow Republicans, to respond by approving a needle exchange program. Buttigieg, who was months away from publicly coming out as gay, was largely absent from that debate.

Pence caused a national uproar that year by signing a "religious freedom" law criticized as anti-LGBT. Republicans including the mayor of Indianapolis demanded that the governor and the GOP legislature "fix this law" and "do so immediately." Buttigieg criticized Statehouse politicians for the "most embarrassing incident" and tweeted he was "disappointed" Pence signed the bill.

But several weeks later, as the controversy raged, Buttigieg attended a Pence event in South Bend. The mayor told the South Bend Tribune, "I'm focusedI could say I made a good effort to talk him out of it, but it was clear from the look in his eyes that he had made up his mind," he wrote, referring to a meeting in which Pence told Buttigieg and other mayors he planned to sign the legislation.

As mayor, Buttigieg's allies argue he had to maintain a cordial relationship with a governor who held sway over money sorely needed in South Bend.

"It doesn't help your city if you have an adversarial relationship with the sitting governor, and Mayor Buttigieg recognized that," said Greg Goodnight, the Democratic mayor of Kokomo, Indiana, who supports Buttigieg's White House ambitions.

For example, one of Pence's last major policy achievements as governor was a program that awarded funding to several regions