Western candidate

[Mr. Morden]

A related thing that is kind of remarkable is how few of the prospective Democratic candidates (and there are, what?  25 or 30 of them now?) have won major statewide office in any states won by Trump in this past election.  I guess Bullock is the most likely candidate who's won statewide in a Trump state.  Then you've got Sherrod Brown, who, despite probably being a reasonably strong candidate, actually has done next to nothing to indicate that he's interested (though it's possible he's just biding his time until his 2018 reelection).

And that's pretty much it.  Castro is from Texas, but he hasn't won statewide.  Those who have won statewide, and who've done something to indicate interest in 2020, come from states such as Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Virginia, etc.

[Mr. Morden]

Is there any particular reason why Inslee isn't ever seriously considered on this board or by prognosticators? Is it a low profile? A natural preference of the modern Democratic Party for Senate candidates? Bullock is a good candidate for a GE, don't get me wrong. But why doesn't Inslee get the same level of recognition?

“Presidential buzz” usually doesn’t materialize out of thin air.  (In most cases anyway) it’s not something that’s imposed on the candidate from the outside.  Rather, a candidate’s name gets dropped because he/she wants it to be dropped.  In Bullock’s case, he attended that David Brock-hosted event for big $ fundraisers in Florida earlier this year, and he’s also on the schedule for CAP’s Ideas Conference in May, which’ll feature a bunch of other people positioning themselves for 2020 (e.g., Booker, Gillibrand, Warren…).  The latter event in particular sounds like an indication of interest.  Not sure that Inslee has done anything comparable yet, though if he ends up going to the Ideas Conference as well, that would certainly count as an indication of interest.