After a Democratic National Committee (DNC) gathering, a former mayor of New Orleans said he is considering a presidential bid.
Mitch Landrieu made the remarks last week that sparked speculation in New Orleans, where the DNC executive board held its quarterly meeting.
Landrieu, a lawyer, served as mayor of New Orleans from 2010 to 2018 and previously as the state of Louisiana’s lieutenant governor from 2004 to 2010.
He was also the White House infrastructure coordinator for two years under former President Joe Biden before leaving to promote the former president’s reelection.
“You can begin to dream about the America that should be because we are not going back to where we were," he said at a Young Democrats of America event last week. "It’s like when New Orleans got destroyed by Katrina. You get to construct a new day, if you win and that is what 2028 and beyond is going to be about.”
Landrieu was serving as the Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.
Biden frequently praised Landrieu for his role in restoring New Orleans and used it to justify appointing Landrieu to oversee the implementation of the $1.2 trillion 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
"We grabbed our past—that was important, that told us who we are,” Landrieu said. “We got rid of the mistakes we made and we looked forward to a new day where we can make New Orleans the city it should have been if we had gotten it right the first time.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act aimed to modernize the nation's physical and digital foundations.
Landrieu did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication.
“Mitch has always known that the real measure of success is not about scoring partisan points—it’s about building bridges, and fixing the problem at hand,” Biden said at the time.
Landrieu left the Biden administration position after two years.
He had announced 40,000 projects before exiting the infrastructure czar post because advocating for Biden's second presidency would have been limited by his federal employee status.