Just eight months into Donald Trump’s Presidency and over two years until the first 2020 presidential nominating contests in New Hampshire and Iowa, it seems like every Democrat thinks he or she could be the next president.
Even conservative lists of potential candidates stretch beyond two dozen names and next year’s midterm elections are likely to see the ranks of White House hopefuls grow beyond that.
There’s the usual roster of top-tier names with at least 11 senators, six governors, one former vice president, a group of interesting lesser known Democrats, and more than one high-profile celebrity.
Senators Bernie Sanders (Ind – VT) and Elizabeth Warren (Dem -MASS) and former Vice President Joe Biden are sure to make a strong showing but Republicans shouldn’t count out Eric Garcetti, the Jewish-Italian-Mexican-American mayor of Los Angeles.
More interesting are some real outsiders who have made noises. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks has been happy to engage reporters since a poll showed him besting the president. “It’s not a dream of mine to hold office. But if I think I can bring people together, reduce their stress and solve some important problems, then I have to give it serious consideration,” Cuban told NBC News.
Actor Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson told GQ, “I think that it’s a real possibility,” and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently hired Clinton’s former top pollster.
Politico sees the Democratic hopefuls belonging to one or more groups:
The Populists – Sanders is the undisputed populist champion of the Democratic Party but if he runs again his work is cut out for him to retain that title. Unlike Sanders, Elizabeth Warren bears no scars from last year. Plus, she can boast of a major populist achievement, having created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The Heartlanders- Montana Governor Steve Bullock shared his thoughts on “How Democrats Can Win the West” in his New York Times op-ed page last week. In it, Bullock mapped out a strategy for erasing the classic partisan dividing lines.
The Experienced – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will probably try to leverage the totality of his record and like Hillary Clinton did, an ability to “get things done.” That probably won’t be enough to convince die-hard progressives, who view his recent moves as calculating and not principled. But the older, pragmatic voters who gave Clinton the last nod may be open to Cuomo.
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper is viewed with suspicion by some progressives but his state’s economy has been ranked the best in the nation. He has also led his purple state through some tense cultural issues and managed to win a second term. After the Aurora movie theater mass shooting, Hickenlooper enacted some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation – including universal background checks.
One name that has risen to the top among the Democratic establishment is that of Senator Kamala Harris (Dem – CA), the first Indian-American and only the second black woman to be elected senator in American history, Harris has sometimes been dubbed “the next Barack Obama”. The Hill, Mother Jones, and The New York Times place her on the shortlist of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls and The San Francisco Chronicle calls her the “Great Blue Hope”.
Harris recently met with top Clinton donors in the Hamptons. Also present were Clinton’s 2008 Campaign National Finance Co-Chair Michael Kempner, donors Steven Gambrel and Dennis Mehiel, and Democratic National Committeeman Robert Zimmerman. She also attended a separate luncheon hosted by Liz Robbins, one of Clinton’s top lobbyist bundlers.
Senator Harris is a newcomer to Capitol Hill but her verbal sparring with Republican attorney general Jeff Sessions has been widely applauded by Democrats, leading to talk of a possible run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Progressives further to the left may derail Harris, however, since they haven’t forgotten Clinton’s sabotage of their hero, Bernie Sanders.
George Soros donated the maximum amount allowed to Harris’ Senate campaign in 2015 and Harris spoke at Soros’ 2020 Vision Conference in San Francisco. The junior senator has headlined along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and at Soros’ Democracy Alliance Conference.
“The old saw that every senator wakes up humming ‘Hail to the Chief’ now includes just about any Democrat who isn’t a convicted felon,” said Jonathan Tasini, a progressive activist.
It should be interesting to see what happens when Democrats have so many horses in the race much like Republicans did last year.
~ American Liberty Report
