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.
This, though in some cases it seems like some buzz is imposed on candidates simply because they're from a unique demographic (eg Tammy Baldwin, Kamala Harris) or just by their general uniqueness and competence (Franken comes to mind).
Thank you both for the explanation - quite helpful for context. Seems like a national profile is something that's a prerequisite for the buzz imposed scenario that you describe, something that Inslee has not yet attained.
