The “Who is running in 2020?” tea leaves thread, Part 2

[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

Hickenlooper is apparently visiting Iowa on April 3rd:

https://governor.iowa.gov/2018/01/gov-reynolds-announces-2018-future-ready-iowa-summit-registration-to-open-this-week

….and “holding meetings with veteran political players” about a presidential run:

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_31728789/behind-scenes-colorado-gov-john-hickenlooper-inches-toward

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On first reading, I missed one of the weirdest angles in this story....that Michael Bennet and Ken Salazar might also be considering presidential runs(!):

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SAVE US MICHAEL BENNET! I've urged Senator Bennet to run on social media a few times; if he runs I'll immediately endorse him and join his campaign.

I can't imagine a person less suited to run for President in the current political environment than Michael Bennet.

Why exactly?

[Mr. Morden]

Sunday morning talk show watch:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEWS_SHOWS?SITE=AP

Bob Corker will be on Face the Nation, while Jeff Flake will be on State of the Union.  Rand Paul will appear on both shows.

[Mr. Morden]

Sunday morning talk show watch:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEWS_SHOWS?SITE=AP

Bob Corker will be on Face the Nation, while Jeff Flake will be on State of the Union.  Rand Paul will appear on both shows.

Looks like Mitch Landrieu will also appear on This Week, talking about his book (which comes out in just a few days):

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sunday-week-rep-adam-schiff-sen-james-lankford/story?id=53819011

And speaking of books, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but Gillibrand has a book (titled "Bold and Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote") coming out on November 13th.  That's just after the midterms, and it gives her a good couple of months to do a book tour before she officially launches her presidential campaign (assuming she goes that route):

https://www.amazon.com/Bold-Brave-Heroes-Women-Right/dp/052557901X

Also, Seth Moulton has a book coming out in July:

https://www.amazon.com/Called-Serve-Learning-Lead-Peace/dp/B076T6H4WK/

Still waiting on a release date for Julian Castro's book.

[MAINEiac4434]

Any politician coming out with a book is pretty much officially running for President.

[Dr. MB]

Sunday morning talk show watch:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NEWS_SHOWS?SITE=AP

Bob Corker will be on Face the Nation, while Jeff Flake will be on State of the Union.  Rand Paul will appear on both shows.

Looks like Mitch Landrieu will also appear on This Week, talking about his book (which comes out in just a few days):

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sunday-week-rep-adam-schiff-sen-james-lankford/story?id=53819011

And speaking of books, I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but Gillibrand has a book (titled "Bold and Brave: Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote") coming out on November 13th.  That's just after the midterms, and it gives her a good couple of months to do a book tour before she officially launches her presidential campaign (assuming she goes that route):

https://www.amazon.com/Bold-Brave-Heroes-Women-Right/dp/052557901X

Also, Seth Moulton has a book coming out in July:

https://www.amazon.com/Called-Serve-Learning-Lead-Peace/dp/B076T6H4WK/

Still waiting on a release date for Julian Castro's book.

Landrieu's a good mayor but not really presidential material, Moulton's a mediocre congressman, and Castro was a minor cabinet secretary. I don't have anything against them, but I'd be surprised if they are any more successful than Lincoln Chafee.

[Mr. Morden]

More from Bill Kristol:

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/974389415484297218

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[America's Sweetheart ❤/𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖔𝖙𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖎𝖔𝖗]

More from Bill Kristol:

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/974389415484297218

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If Bill Kristol told me the sky was blue I'd no longer believe the sky is blue.

[Rookie Yinzer]

How long will it be until the first debates happen on the Democratic side? I do remember them starting around August 2011 during the 2012 Republican primaries. I don't remember the debate schedule in 2016.

Hopefully April like during the 2008 primaries. If the Democrats do well, we'll be fired up and ready to start our nomination process!

[Mr. Morden]

Politico has a new story on how “at least a dozen” potential 2020 Dem. presidential candidates are “staffing up” for a 2020 presidential campaign:

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/18/2020-democrats-candidates-shadow-primary-467784

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These efforts include candidates bringing new people onto their own campaigns, in some cases making new hires ostensibly for their own reelection efforts, but *really* being added as a precursor for 2020, and also farming some of their people out to other high profile midterm campaigns in order to get more experience before 2020.

Among the prospective candidates doing this who have been name checked in the article are Booker, McAuliffe, Warren, Kander, Harris, Castro, Garcetti, and Bullock.  Since Biden and Sanders have run before, they “largely [already] have their core teams in place”, and so this isn’t necessary for them in the same way.  (Maybe that’s also true of O’Malley, who isn’t mentioned?).  Though the story does note that Sanders brought on former Harry Reid aide Ari Rabin-Havt and foreign policy advisor Matt Duss last year.

Anyway, here are some examples:

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[Mr. Morden]

https://twitter.com/darrensands/status/975386675340890112

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[Mr. Morden]

Here's this week's #2020Vision column:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/18/politics/2020-vision-banking-bill-warren-sanders/index.html

Most of it has already been covered here, though they do note that after Jeff Merkley did his event in Nevada for the state Democratic Party's “Local Brews + National Views” series on Friday, he stayed in the state on Saturday as well to campaign for Jacky Rosen.

[Mr. Morden]

I mentioned this Kamala Harris profile in Vogue in its own thread, but here's the relevant 2020 part:

https://www.vogue.com/article/kamala-harris-interview-vogue-april-2018

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[Mr. Morden]

I already mentioned Booker’s appearance on The View in its own thread, but here’s the tea leaves part, where Booker is asked about 2020, and gives a non-answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mVi6yWqByA&t=2m14s

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

I mentioned this Kamala Harris profile in Vogue in its own thread, but here's the relevant 2020 part:

https://www.vogue.com/article/kamala-harris-interview-vogue-april-2018

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Jeez. I love Kamala, but can we ban the word "focus" in political news programming from now on? We gotta make these people think of new ways to avoid answering a question if they're gonna be so iffy about it.

[Mr. Morden]

Romney being challenged to sign a pledge that he won't run for prez in 2020:

http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2018/03/19/mgk-meyers-challenges-romney-other-senate-candidates-to-pledge-not-to-challenge-trump-for-presidency-in-2020/#.WrB0vraZOqA

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[NewYorkExpress]

Romney being challenged to sign a pledge that he won't run for prez in 2020:

http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2018/03/19/mgk-meyers-challenges-romney-other-senate-candidates-to-pledge-not-to-challenge-trump-for-presidency-in-2020/#.WrB0vraZOqA

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Romney would be suicidal to run...as a Republican. He certainly could take a chance as an Independent, and he might even carry Utah, Idaho and possibly even Arizona (if the Democrat doesn't run a particularly good campaign there). Nevada is also doable...but again it requires the Democrat to completely blow the race.

[Mr. Morden]

Deval Patrick met with Temple College Democrats last Thursday:

https://temple-news.com/former-massachusetts-gov-patrick-deval-visits-temple/

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[Mr. Morden]

Mitch Landrieu continued his book tour with an appearance on The Daily Show last night:

https://www.bestofneworleans.com/thelatest/archives/2018/03/20/on-the-daily-show-mitch-landrieu-discusses-monuments-demagogues-and-the-countrys-obligation-to-confront-racism

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[Mr. Morden]

Garcetti’s headed to Iowa next month:

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/21/eric-garcetti-iowa-477573

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Looks like Swalwell will also be traveling to Davenport:

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Garcetti’s also doing fundraising for early primary state Democratic candidates even when he’s in Los Angeles:

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[Mr. Morden]

More Mitch Landrieu book touring leads to more 2020 questions.  When asked on Morning Joe, Landrieu sounds skeptical, but doesn't close the door:

http://freebeacon.com/politics/mitch-landrieu-running-president-2020-kind-of-doubt-it/

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Politico also has a new Landrieu 2020 story:

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/21/mitch-landrieu-2020-democrats-473648

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[Mr. Morden]

Here is a useful page keeping track of all the Dem. visits to Iowa:

https://iowastartingline.com/2020-watch/

I guess I had missed O'Malley's visit to Iowa last month.  Also missed a couple of those Swalwell visits.

[tosk]

Here is a useful page keeping track of all the Dem. visits to Iowa:

https://iowastartingline.com/2020-watch/

I guess I had missed O'Malley's visit to Iowa last month.  Also missed a couple of those Swalwell visits.

is their anything significant about Swalwell other than his early state visits?

[Mr. Morden]

Here is a useful page keeping track of all the Dem. visits to Iowa:

https://iowastartingline.com/2020-watch/

I guess I had missed O'Malley's visit to Iowa last month.  Also missed a couple of those Swalwell visits.

is their anything significant about Swalwell other than his early state visits?

Not really.  He's been going to Iowa, but he's flying under the radar, and no one is talking about him.  Still, I guess that makes him more likely to run than most of the hundreds of members of Congress who *don't* keep visiting Iowa.

[Mr. Morden]

This year’s CAP Ideas Conference will be held on May 15th, and there are already some confirmed speakers, once again including several prospective 2020ers:

https://capideas.org

E.g….

Cory Booker
Sherrod Brown
Bill de Blasio
Kirsten Gillibrand
Joe Kennedy
Seth Moulton
Chris Murphy
Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren

Honestly, I think this might be the very first 2020 hint of any kind dropped by Sherrod Brown.

[Mr. Morden]

The Hill has a new story on the competition for top tier staff among the 2020ers:

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/379647-2020-dems-compete-for-top-campaign-operatives

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As noted in the Politico story on the same topic, some of the candidates already have people slated for inclusion in their 2020 campaigns:

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