Pete Anderson

Peter Joseph Anderson (June 4, 1954 – November 27, 2017) was an American politician who served as the 26th United States Secretary of Defense in 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Anderson previously served as the U.S. Senator from the Northeast from 2016 to 2017 and as the U.S. Representative from District 1 from 2014 to 2016, during which time he served as the 60th Speaker of the House.

Anderson managed the presidential campaign of Thomas Ortega until Ortega's assassination in January 2016 ended the campaign and allowed him to become the campaign manager of Rocky Steinberg. Both campaigns managed by Anderson were nominated by the Democratic Party.

After his resignation from the Cabinet in 2017, Anderson launched an exploratory committee for president in the 2020 election. On the morning of November 27, 2017, Anderson was flying his Cessna airplane around Cape Cod when he was killed in a crash after both of his airplane's engines caught fire, causing Anderson to lose control and crash into the Atlantic Ocean. Anderson's ashes were spread where he was killed 2 months after his death.