Buttigieg is the only top 2020 candidate not offering staffers healthcare

Gay presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg is not providing health care for his staffers, NBC reports.

He is the only major candidate not to provide health care coverage to any of his own campaign workers, the news site found.

His campaign told NBC Buttigieg is providing a monthly stipend to workers to buy insurance and plans to offer health care in the future.

There has been a surge in support for Buttigieg, who is currently mayor of South Bend, Indiana, since he announced his candidacy in January.

He has succeeded fundraising expectations and quickly scaled up his team.

But, NBC reports that other Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders are all providing healthcare or claim they are.

Warren’s campaign, for example, paid $87,000 to United Healthcare.

On the campaign trail, Buttigieg has voiced support for affordable health care insurance. Some crtics have accused him of hypocrisy in not offering health coverage.

But, people have praised Buttigieg for employing disabled people and paying interns US$15 an hour.

Surge in popularity 

Buttigieg announced that he would be running for president in January, and officially began his campaign in March.

Since then he has experienced a surge in popularly and has begun to regularly feature in the media.

Last month, he and his husband were on the cover of TIME magazine.

He has consistently polled at third place among the field of Democratic presidential candidates.

He is still trailing Democratic frontrunner, former Vice President Biden, and Vermont Senator Sanders.

Fellow presidential hopeful Massachusetts Senator Warren has also been rising in the polls in recent weeks. A recent survey placed Warren ahead of Buttigieg.

A recent survey also found that 70% of voters would be willing to vote for a gay man for president. However, 53% also said that they did not think the US was currently ready for a gay president.