WILMINGTON, Delaware: President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Pete Buttigieg to lead the US Transportation Department, according to four people familiar with the matter, making him the first of Biden's Democratic rivals for the presidency to land a role in his Cabinet.

The appointment of Buttigieg, 38, is another step in a meteoric political rise for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who showed surprising strength as a presidential candidate. If confirmed by the US Senate, he would run a sprawling federal agency that oversees the nation's airlines, highways and transit systems.