Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday he still backs adding seats to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the current nine-member bench has become what he called a “nakedly partisan institution.”
Buttigieg made the comments during a September 13 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, when host Kristen Welker asked whether he still supports increasing the number of justices from nine to fifteen, a position he took years ago as a presidential candidate.
“Yes, I talked about this years ago when I was running for president,” Buttigieg said. “At the time, it was a pretty lonely position. People were looking at me funny when I was talking about reforming the Supreme Court.”
He said public opinion has shifted since then. “I think with the years that have come in between, a lot more people are onto that idea because it has become a nakedly partisan institution,” Buttigieg said, adding that the goal isn’t simply to add justices but to “reform the institution to make it less partisan.” He did not say how many seats he now supports adding.
Buttigieg is not the only prominent Democrat to raise the idea. Former Vice President Kamala Harris told a CNN town hall in October 2024 that Americans are losing confidence in the court and that some form of reform should be studied, pointing to the Dobbs decision and the conduct of individual justices. Former Attorney General Eric Holder has also floated expansion, calling the court a “broken institution” in comments President Trump highlighted in December 2025. Trump argued such a move would “destroy our Constitution” and called instead for scrapping the Senate filibuster.
An Oklahoma Connection
The Supreme Court isn’t the only structural change Buttigieg has floated to Oklahoma audiences directly. At a town hall in Tulsa in May 2026, he called for scrapping the Electoral College in favor of a national popular vote, arguing whoever wins the most votes nationwide should become president. He told the Tulsa crowd the switch would push Democrats to campaign in states like Oklahoma and Republicans to campaign in places like Brooklyn — a pitch aimed at voters in a state that rarely sees presidential attention under the current system. Trump won both the popular vote and the Electoral College in 2024.
Where Buttigieg Stands Nationally
The renewed comments come as Buttigieg sits near the top of early polling for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary. A University of New Hampshire poll released in July put Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) at 22 percent among Democratic primary voters, with Buttigieg close behind at 21 percent. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) polled at nine percent, California Gov. Gavin Newsom at eight percent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at six percent, Harris at five percent, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at two percent, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker at one percent.
A separate Public Sentiment Institute poll released in August found Buttigieg leading among likely Democratic primary voters in Michigan with 24.2 percent, with 21.7 percent undecided and Harris at 5.1 percent.
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