Democalypse 2020 Check-in

With Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders officially announcing his candidacy this week, the 2020 presidential campaign has begun in earnest. It's time to watch a bunch of established urban professionals pretend to enjoy the state of Iowa once again! It's only Democrats this time around, so let's try and see which one of these folks will have the honor of meeting President Trump in the general election in 2020. Only 21 months to go, people.
 
At this early juncture, a clear tier one of candidates is emerging. That would be Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, and California Senator Kamala Harris. Sanders raised over 6 million dollars in the 24 hours following his announcement on Tuesday, a record-shattering number that vastly outpaces the rest of his competitors. The average donation was 27 dollars, just as it was in 2016. Regardless of your feelings on the occasionally cranky near-octogenarian, he has a huge and passionate following that is not going anywhere.

Warren and Harris don't quite have that same level of energy but are nevertheless formidable candidates. Harris is a relative newcomer to national politics, which is always a plus in today's hyperpartisan media environment. The longer your track record, the more mistakes you have to answer for. She's also the closest to Bernie in terms of early fundraising, for whatever that's worth. By contrast, Warren has a much more established political platform and is likely to be the easy choice for voters who were particularly jazzed by Hillary Clinton's candidacy.

Beyond that group is a host of contenders jockeying for position, probably headlined by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker as well as Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar and New York's Kristen Gillibrand. Booker was at one point in time a darling of the left and there was hope he could be Obama 2.0, but at this point is generally seen as far too cozy with Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry to win a Democratic primary. Maybe he really is Obama 2.0!

Klobuchar, meanwhile, has been struggling to generate momentum after a scathing report was released that painted her as the ultimate nightmare boss, which included throwing binders at staffers and berating them until they cry. It's more than a pure partisan hackjob, as she does have by far the highest staff turnover rate in Washington. Hey, being a garbage person certainly never stopped anyone in D.C. before.  
 
Of course every good production needs its comic relief, which is thankfully being provided in droves by Starbucks CEO and Man Who Will Absolutely Never Be President, Howard Schultz. Because who hasn't had what's essentially a milkshake at nine in the morning and thought "the guy in charge of this should be in charge of EVERYTHING." He has added one undeniably amazing tidbit into the cultural canon - that calling someone a 'billionaire' is a slur and we should use the term 'person of means' instead. Read the room, Howard. 

If there is another candidate out there who has the potential to shake up the race, if only for a few months, it's definitely former VP Joe Biden. Ole Amtrak Joe has been biding his time since acquiescing to Hillary around this time in the last presidential cycle, and he certainly feels like he could have held together the Rust Belt coalition that ultimately handed Trump the presidency. Frankly, I tend to think that while he's probably right about what happened in 2016, his moment has passed. He also has a history of being just a liiittle too handsy for today's post-Me Too environment. 

Finally, in the interest of full disclosure: I'm not a believer in Beto O'Rourke. Why would the guy who lost to Ted Cruz beat the guy who beat Ted Cruz, exactly?

Stay tuned to WhoReps as we continue to check back in on the campaign!