A historic string of air, rail and supply-chain meltdowns has plagued Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s first two years in workplace, inserting him — for higher or worse — on the middle of crises affecting hundreds of thousands of individuals.

Why it issues: A modest Cupboard function has turn into a political albatross for one of many Democratic Occasion’s brightest younger stars. Republicans have sought to make Buttigieg the face of the transport disruptions, whereas Democrats say his disaster management is proving his political mettle.

What’s taking place: A security system outage pressured the Federal Aviation Administration to briefly floor all U.S. flights Wednesday for the primary time for the reason that 9/11 assaults.

• Simply weeks earlier, a systemwide meltdown at Southwest resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations and delays over the vacations.
• Late final 12 months, Congress needed to step in to avert a nationwide freight rail strike after union employees rejected a Biden administration-brokered deal over the dearth of paid sick go away.
• In the meantime, international provide chain snarls linked to the COVID-19 pandemic have precipitated huge disruptions to U.S. ports courting again to 2021, leading to widespread product shortages and protracted inflation.

The most recent: President Biden has ordered Buttigieg to conduct an investigation of the flight system outage, which the FAA has preliminarily traced to a “broken database file.” In response to a query at a Wednesday briefing, White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that Biden nonetheless has confidence in Buttigieg.

Between the strains: Buttigieg has in a number of circumstances been the sufferer of circumstances that predated his time in workplace — akin to the traditional computer systems and infrastructure that appeared to contribute to the FAA catastrophe.

• That hasn’t stopped Republicans from relentlessly attacking Buttigieg every time a disaster has arisen, accusing the previous small-town mayor of being incompetent and ill-qualified.
• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a prime Republican on the committee that oversees DOT, referred to as the FAA outage “utterly unacceptable and simply the newest instance of dysfunction” at Buttigieg’s company.

The opposite facet: “You possibly can’t go a day at DOT with out some type of a disaster. It’s a must to present the management, which I feel Secretary Buttigieg has,” former Obama Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advised Axios.

• Jill Zuckman, a accomplice at SKDK and former head of public affairs beneath LaHood, says Republicans are hammering Buttigieg as a result of they see him as a possible presidential candidate. “That’s not how previous Transportation secretaries have been handled,” Zuckman advised Axios.
• The shortage of a everlasting FAA administrator has additionally required Buttigieg to imagine a extra public-facing function.
• His frequent appearances on Fox Information and different cable information channels — a relic of the “go all over the place” media technique that vaulted him to the highest of the Democratic discipline in 2020 — have strengthened his standing as one of many get together’s best communicators.

Be good: The trail from a second-tier Cupboard place like Transportation secretary to the White Home — or any distinguished elected workplace — was by no means as straightforward as marketed. By the point any future openings pop up, recollections of his outstanding underdog presidential marketing campaign can have light.

• The bipartisan infrastructure regulation has given Buttigieg a uncommon platform to be entrance and middle: Simply final week, he was in Connecticut to advertise enhancements for the Gold Star Memorial Bridge in New London.
• However as the previous few months of transportation snafus have demonstrated, Buttigieg’s day job is stuffed with loads of political downsides — with out a lot alternative to set the political agenda.

Zoom in: Biden’s intention to run for re-election in 2024 removes a transparent alternative for Buttigieg to ascend to increased workplace.

• He relocated to Michigan, a state that is way more hospitable to Democrats than his GOP-friendly house turf of Indiana.
• However the Democratic bench of formidable officeholders is deep in his adopted state, and Buttigieg rapidly took himself out of the working for the open Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
• Democratic operatives famous that Buttigieg, regardless of his excessive profile, would face a few of the identical challenges in Michigan that he did in his 2020 presidential marketing campaign.