Pete Buttigieg

The US Senate confirmed Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary on Tuesday, making him the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ secretary. Buttigieg will oversee aviation safety, railroads, transit, highways and other transportation fields.

On Thursday, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation andwife of the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Elaine Chao, announced her resignation on Twitter.

"Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed. As I'm sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside," Chao wrote. "Today, I am announcing my resignation as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, to take effect on Monday, January 11, 2020." Chao added she would help announced successor Mayor Pete Buttigieg with "taking on the responsibility of running this wonderful department."

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to lead the Department of Transportation. If Buttigieg's nomination makes it through chambers, he would be the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary.

During the Democratic debate in Las Vegas, the candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination were asked if the "person with the most delegates at the end of the primary season" should be the nominee for the Democratic party, even if the candidate is short of a majority of delegates. All candidates except Bernie Sanders answered the question with no. This is important in particular because if no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, 500 superdelegates that aren't appointed through primaries can vote in the second one.

A new poll by Data for Progress found the democratic presidential nominee contender Bernie Sanders leads with 35%. This puts him at more than double the percentage points than either of his competitors Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Joe Biden which all poll around the same within a possible statistical inaccuracy between 16-14%.