Pete Buttigieg Announces Town Hall on Fox News

UPDATE (April, 23rd): Mayor Pete Buttigieg will host his Fox News town hall on May 19th with Chris Wallace hosting.

He will be the first openly gay candidate allowed into this forum on the notoriously conservative network.

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Despite the Fox News Channel's general unfriendliness to LGBTQ causes, gay Democratic presidential aspirant Pete Buttigieg is negotiating to do a town hall on the outlet.

"Reaching out to the Fox audience is something we intend to do," a spokesperson for Buttigieg's campaign told The Hill today. Another contender for the Democratic nomination, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, had a town hall Monday on Fox News.

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., formally announced his presidential campaign over the weekend, after having formed an exploratory committee in January. He raised $7 million in campaign funds in the first quarter of the year, and he has raised another $1 million since his official announcement. He's polling ahead of several other hopefuls and has become something of a media star.

The Democratic Party isn't fond of Fox News - Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez announced this year that the party wouldn't have any debates on Fox, due to its coziness with Donald Trump's administration. Buttigieg is so far the only Democratic hopeful to appear on Fox News Sunday this year.

Buttigieg also recently received a $2,800 donation from James Murdoch, a member of the family that controls Fox News. Murdoch, who has no role in the revamped Fox Corp. that emerged after many Fox assets were sold to the Walt Disney Co., is known as one of the more liberal members of the generally conservative family. His brother Lachlan heads Fox Corp., and their father, Rupert Murdoch, was long at the helm of the Fox empire. Other celebrity donors to Buttigieg include Ellen DeGeneres, Ryan Reynolds, and Mandy Moore.