The “Who is running in 2020?” tea leaves thread

[Mr. Morden]

Cruz keeping in touch with donors, Sasse has national staff onboard already, Walker fundraising for RGA that he's expected to chair in 2018. Cotton travelling to CA, staffing up and will attend Roast and Ride in August, Rubio keeping in touch with donors.

From that story, it sounds like Cotton is being the most open about his 2020 ambitions:

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[Mr. Morden]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/senate-sasse-ben-223886

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[Mr. Morden]

Cruz will be attending the Faith & Freedom conference.

Numerous 2016 presidential candidates who could conceivably run again will be there (including the current nominee, Donald Trump):

http://www.roadtomajority.com

Carson
Cruz
Fiorina
Rubio

Huckabee, Kasich, and Paul are invited, but looks like not confirmed to attend at this point.

Meanwhile Blackburn and Ernst are confirmed to attend, potentially to audition for vice president.

Update: I guess this is happening now.  The potential 2020ers who actually ended up showing up to speak are:

http://www.roadtomajority.com/RTM_Agenda_1.pdf

Paul
Rubio
Carson (hey, he ran before, maybe he’ll do it again)
Fiorina (same)

Huckabee was a no show.  And Cruz, despite being advertised as a speaker in the tweet RogueBeaver linked to, doesn’t actually show up on the program.

[Mr. Morden]

More talk from a friend of Rubio that Rubio plans to run for president in 2020:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/what-will-marco-rubio-do-224274

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[Mr. Morden]

Wikipedia now mentions a LOT more people: Kaine, Cuomo, Patrick, and Warren for Democrats, and Christie, Cotton, Cruz, Haley, Kasich, Paul, Pence, Rauner, Rubio, Sasse, and Walker for the Republicans (plus both potential incumbent Presidents).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2020

Yeah, but as I said earlier in the thread, Wikipedia mixes together people who've made solid hints that they're interested in running and people who haven't done anything to indicate an interest in running, yet are being speculated about on blogs.  For example, they list Kaine, but it's based on nothing.  They link to a National Review story that talks about how Kaine wants to be Clinton's running mate, which then speculates that if Clinton loses the general election, her running mate would be in a good position for 2020.

The purpose of this thread is more to talk about actual hints from the candidates themselves (and those around them) that they're interested in running.  So far, we have real hints of interest from folks like Cruz, Rubio, Walker, Cotton, Sasse, etc.  On the Democratic side, it's pretty quiet.  I guess at this point, none of the Dems are ready to even contemplate the possibility that Clinton might lose.  (Or they are contemplating it, but don't want to be caught talking about it.)

[Mr. Morden]

Ted Cruz attended a “secret dinner” earlier this week to plot his comeback:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/283655-top-conservatives-meet-at-secret-dinner-to-discuss-cruzs

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Meanwhile, here’s Paul Ryan on whether he has presidential ambitions:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/paul-ryan-donald-trump-blank-check-endorsement_us_5762fc28e4b0df4d586f9973

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[Mr. Morden]

So apparently Joe Walsh is running in 2020.

Yeah, he "announced" back in 2015 that he'll run for prez in 2020 if a Democrat wins this time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq_0YR4Yuzk

[Mr. Morden]

Kasich 2020?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/kasich-lost-gop-nomination-but-now-hes-finding-a-moment/2016/07/10/b2372d94-454f-11e6-8856-f26de2537a9d_story.html

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[Mr. Morden]

Walker and Cotton will address the IA/NH/SC delegations.

If that isn't a flashing neon sign indicating future presidential ambitions, I don't know what is.

Note that it's not just them, though.  The story indicates that Ernst and Kasich will both meet with the New Hampshire delegation.

[Mr. Morden]

I'll be interested to see if any potential future Democratic presidential candidates meet with the IA/NH/SC delegations at the DNC.  Or would that be seen as an insult to Clinton, to already be making contingency plans for 2020 in case she loses this time?  (Since so many Republican elites don't like Trump, I guess people don't worry about that so much on the Republican side.)

[Mr. Morden]

Walker says he won't run, will be running for reelection and won't run for POTUS while guv.

Interesting.  I guess that clears the way for Paul Ryan to get all the cheesehead donors.

[Mr. Morden]

I don't know why everyone assumes Ryan's running, considering that after 4 years of Hillary he's not gonna be in the best political shape. Plus he turned down 2 Senate runs & a POTUS run already.

I'm not *assuming* he's running, but I'd say there's a decent chance of it happening.  The way he talked about it here:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=233345.msg5121895#msg5121895

about the "phase of life" he was in, seemed like he very clearly wanted to indicate that a presidential run at some point in the future is something he's still thinking about.

[Mr. Morden]

Of course, one has to ask...if Walker is seriously ruling out another run for prez in 2020, then why on Earth is he bothering to meet with the Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina delegations in Cleveland this week?  Meeting with all three sounds like a solid signal of continued presidential ambition, no?

Or maybe he's already planning his presidential campaign for 2024? 

[Mr. Morden]

Cruz, Kasich, and Rubio have so fan not shared their voter profile databases from their '16 campaigns with the RNC, even though they are supposed to do so, according to data sharing agreements with the RNC:

http://www.bendbulletin.com/nation/4511817-151/delays-in-transferring-data-to-trump

Speculation is 1) they don't want to help Trump, and 2) all three of them might run again in 2020, and would like to keep exclusive access to this info.

[Mr. Morden]

More on Kasich 2020:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/07/19/kasich-for-president-in-2020.html

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[Mr. Morden]

LA Times on the 2020 politicking in Cleveland this week:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-republicans-2020-hopefuls-20160722-snap-story.html

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[Mr. Morden]

While most of the 2020 action has been on the Republican side, with the DNC coming up, there are a few rumblings of Democratic action as well….either for 2020 if Trump wins in November, or else 2024 if Clinton does…

Klobuchar will speak to the South Carolina delegation at the DNC, while Joaquin Castro will speak to both the Iowa and South Carolina delegations:

http://www.postandcourier.com/20160723/160729724/south-carolinians-set-for-center-stage-at-democratic-national-convention
http://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/local/2016/07/22/iowa-city-area-delegates-head-east-democratic-convention/87443034/

[Mr. Morden]

A coda to the 2020 talk at last week's RNC: Kasich said "I'll be back" when he talked to the NH delegation:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/john-kasich-tells-new-hampshire-ill-be-back/492314/

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[Mr. Morden]

While most of the 2020 action has been on the Republican side, with the DNC coming up, there are a few rumblings of Democratic action as well….either for 2020 if Trump wins in November, or else 2024 if Clinton does…

Klobuchar will speak to the South Carolina delegation at the DNC, while Joaquin Castro will speak to both the Iowa and South Carolina delegations:

http://www.postandcourier.com/20160723/160729724/south-carolinians-set-for-center-stage-at-democratic-national-convention
http://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/local/2016/07/22/iowa-city-area-delegates-head-east-democratic-convention/87443034/

Looks like Klobuchar also talked to the Iowa delegation (as did O'Malley and Sanders):

http://qctimes.com/bacon-too-expensive-for-iowa-delegation/article_6b17e574-f44b-5689-ba39-493250710b5a.html

[Mr. Morden]

Two more potential future presidential candidates talked to the Iowa delegation: Cory Booker and Julian Castro:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2016/07/27/booker-castro-test-out-applause-lines-iowa-dnc-delegation/87613130/

[Mr. Morden]

Justin Amash hinted both at a "Young Americans for Liberty" event and on Twitter that he's up for a 2020 presidential run:

http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/amash-hints-2020-presidential-run/

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[Mr. Morden]

Rand Paul was asked about whether he'd run for president again in 2020, and "gave no specific response", saying only that he's focused on his reelection:

http://www.wave3.com/story/32558846/senator-rand-paul-believes-trump-has-taken-a-huge-step-forward

[Mr. Morden]

Former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling says he plans to run for president (presumably as a Republican) in 2020 or 2024:

http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2016/08/09/Curt-Schilling-eyes-2020-presidential-bid/1961470747032/

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[Mr. Morden]

John Weaver, on whether Kasich will run again in 2020:

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/yes-john-kasich-is-still-running-for-president.html

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[Mr. Morden]

The NYT has a story on how Pence is positioning himself to be a "post-Trump" GOP leader:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/us/politics/mike-pence-donald-trump.html?_r=0

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