The US midterm elections are dead and gone, yet the memories will live on when the Democrats take over the house following the coronation of our nation’s 116th Congress. In the aftermath of the media-revered ‘blue wave,’ speculation and leaks have now turned to who plans on running for president in 2020, even though we’re more than a year away from the Iowa caucus. Personally, the year or so before a primary is my favorite time period because we, as Americans, have the unique pleasure of witnessing politicians from all political preferences be as comically vague as possible. Ask any politician if they plan on running for president and most likely, they’ll retort with something along the lines of “I’m thinking about it, but I’m not sure…”
Come on, seriously, the informed voting public, and the headline-hungry media, just want to know who thinks they’ve got a shot to end up on the ticket of their party. Is it really that big of a secret? As we wait with bated breath for updates on potential candidates, I will do my best to give you my predictions for who I believe will take a stab at running for commander in chief in 2020.
The Blue Wave
As the mounting anticipation prepares to kill each and every one of us, dozens of possible Democratic candidates all claim to be deliberating, contemplating, pondering, chawing, and some other verb ending in “-ing” about whether they plan on running in 2020. Following the aftermath of his defeat in the Senatorial race in Texas, Beto O’Rourke previously told media outlets that he had little to no interest in running for president. He told reporters that when he ran for Senate, he was “100 percent focused on our campaign, winning that race and then serving the next six years in the United States Senate,” but given that the outcome wasn’t in his favor, Republican incumbent Ted Cruz retained his seat, O’Rourke continued to say that now he is “thinking through a number of things.” When a Politico reporter asked if O’Rourke’s position on 2020 was any different than it was before the midterms, he said: “yeah, yeah it is.”
“People are motivated by him as a political leader and a human being. He is authentic, and luckily, authentically cool. For him to play air drums to the Who or skateboard is both authentic and cool. People want to hang out with him.”
–Jim Messina on Beto O’Rourke, NBC News
With the hype surrounding “Betomania,” other potential candidates are emerging from the woodwork, some of which you’d never guess still had an interest in the job. I’m speaking, of course, to the recent news from former Secretary of State John Kerry, 74, that he is isn’t “taking anything off the table,” in terms of running in 2020, despite the fact that he hasn’t been “running around to the most obvious states, laying any groundwork or doing anything.” Kerry secured the Democratic presidential nomination back in 2004 when he ran against George W. Bush, ultimately losing by 19 electoral votes, but if we’ve learned anything about Democratic presidential candidates in the last two election cycles, losing can’t keep a good (cough, cough) Clinton (cough, cough) down.
Red Pres Election
Many nights, I often lie awake, pondering ponderables and life’s mysteries, but some nights I wonder what President Trump dreams of. What lives in the subconscious of the most powerful individual in the free world? Does he dream of world peace, with a Trump tower on every street corner or maybe he has nightmares of who will try to dethrone him in 2020. When the New York Post asked President Trump about his level of concern given that we are a year or so away from the end of his term. One reporter suggested that Trump may be fearful of New York natives like himself gunning for the seat.
“Fear? Fear? Do you mean fear or dream about? I dream about them. So far everyone that I’ve seen I’m dreaming about. I’d love to run against little Michael [Mayor Michael Bloomberg]. I would love to run against him. He’s been fighting me hard. He spent $100 million against me — that didn’t work.”
–President Donald Trump
Trump also spoke on the possibility of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who took over for Hillary Clinton back in 2009, saying that he knew her well because she had asked him for campaign contributions in recent years. Trump claims that Sen. Gillibrand is the only person he’d ever met “who loves guns more than any human being on earth,” and continued to insist that “she’s not going to make it, she’s not going to make it.” Aside from speaking out against those that would seek to threaten Trump’s chances in 2020, he hasn’t commented much on his chances of success for 2020.
A recent survey from The Economist asked respondents if they wanted Donald Trump to run for re-election in 2020, and according to their answers, 78% of GOP respondents said they wanted Trump, but 14% said they preferred if he didn’t run again. Perhaps this is an indication of dissension among the ranks of the Republican Party.
