Politics

Celtics coach Brad Stevens joining lookalike Pete Buttigieg to rally for Democrats

"The crossover event we’ve all been waiting for."

Pete Buttigieg (left) and Brad Stevens (right). Associated Press photos

October 20, 2020

Pete Buttigieg will be joined by a “familiar face” during a get-out-the-vote rally Tuesday night — and no, it’s not his own.

It’s Brad Stevens.

The Boston Celtics coach and fellow Indiana native will be among several of Buttigieg’s guests during the 8 p.m. virtual event to rally support for Democratic candidates in battleground states, the former 2020 presidential candidate and mayor of South Bend announced Tuesday.

Excited for #TeamPete to gather one more time before November 3rd for a Voting Season Rally tonight! Please join us to welcome a few of the candidates we’ve endorsed and also a special guest (and familiar face): Brad Stevens.

RSVP here: https://t.co/MT7wyuZH3U pic.twitter.com/4TJ7h934mn

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) October 20, 2020

The “Voting Season” rally, organized by Buttigieg’s Win the Era political action committee, will also feature several down-ballot Democratic candidates in Florida, North Carolina, and Texas.

But perhaps most notably, it will bring together the two Hoosiers, whose remarkable resemblance (and surprisingly similar biographies) has become a running gag. Roughly a year ago, Buttigieg and Stevens even swapped looks for Halloween.

In a tweet, Buttiegieg’s former adviser Lis Smith called the rally Tuesday night “the crossover event we’ve all been waiting for.”

Brad Stevens and Pete Buttigieg dressed up as each other for Halloween.

According to Win the Era spokesperson Sean Savett, the event Tuesday came together because Stevens and his wife, Tracy, wanted to support efforts to get out the vote, as well as due to their shared Indiana roots with Buttigieg. Of course, the doppelgänger factor also played a role.

“Since people have pointed out Brad and Pete’s strong resemblance, they thought it would be fun to collaborate on an event together in service of getting out the vote,” Savett told Boston.com.

The rally is also the most overt foray into the presidential campaign to date for Stevens, who has generally shied away from partisan politics, at least compared to some of the NBA’s more outspoken coaches, like Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr.

However, the 43-year-old also hasn’t exactly kept his political views secret, either. Last year, Stevens told The Athletic that he and Tracy had become “huge fans” of Buttigieg and “a lot” of his Democratic primary campaign platform. Buttigieg eventually dropped out of the race to endorse former vice president Joe Biden, who went on to win the Democratic nomination to run against Republican President Donald Trump. Following the 2016 election, Stevens let slide that he did not support Trump.

“It wasn’t my vote,” Stevens told MassLive at the time. “Let’s put it that way.”