2020 Democratic presidential primary

San Francisco Police Officers Association

some of the worst ppl in the world, tbf

Harris has alway been personally opposed to the death penalty I think

NEW from me - a year later, a bunch of big Dem donors are still burning at @SenGillibrand for saying Franken should go -- but meanwhile, she's raised more money (much of it from small dollar donations) than any 2020 contender in the Senate except Warren https://t.co/cvYhZaEJOM

— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) December 18, 2018

Good

Buttigieg has announced he won't run for another term as mayor of South Bend, clear the field everyone

PETEY B

he seems nice but c'mon now

BREAKING: Texas Rep. @BetoORourke has been removed from the "No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge" following Sludge's report that he received more than two dozen large campaign donations from oil & gas executives. https://t.co/r3DSGsO58R

— Sludge (@readsludge) December 18, 2018

have to say that ppl pushing for Beto to run is the dumbest phenomenon so far

jfc doesn't he realize people will be looking at things like this? What a dum dum.

You just can't live in Texas and not get money from Big Oil

p sure I have friends in Texas that don't get money from Big Oil

Why are you not a fan? Or are you just not a fan right now, for 2020?

Buttigieg has announced he won't run for another term as mayor of South Bend, clear the field everyone

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, December 18, 2018 3:30 PM (forty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pretty sure he's either a) angling for more name recognition to put him in better position for 2024/2028, or b) trying to get on the radar for a cabinet spot if the dem candidate wins

Why are you not a fan? Or are you just not a fan right now, for 2020?

to be clear, I think Beto is fine for a Democrat from Texas. I don't have any particular beef with him, and I def wish he had beat Ted Cruz. However, the effort to make him into some great white hope with presidential aspirations seems really misguided - he's not a good national candidate, he is a white guy with very little experience and no real progressive credentials, and it seems like what people see in him is p much Obama redux but this time as a white guy. And the big push for his candidacy seems to be coming from inside-the-beltway hothouses of overheated rhetoric like Politico (which, as I've noted elsewhere, is literally running a story a day on him). Pushing for his candidacy strikes me as an attempt to move the party back towards a centrist platform guided by white guys, as if Beto is some magical combo of the best qualities of Obama AND Hillary AND Biden, which is not what we need right now imo.

I don't know how centrist he is, though yeah, he is a white male. But so will be most of the field of hopefuls, none of whom are as appealing as this dude, imo, who, yeah, p much Obama redux but this time as a white guy. But in the non-white guy category I don't see any real hopefuls, not Harris, hell no Warren, maybe Gillibrand I guess, but she seems a risk just a few years after 2016. Or maybe not! The thing is, *someone* has to run, and while Beto is unproven, too centrist, too this, too that, I'm not sure any of the other potential runners are really any better. Maybe he can just run for Senator form Texas again.

there's gonna be like at least a dozen people running, I don't see Beto adding much of anything that the others don't have except for some "I don't believe in labels, I like to listen to people" centrist mush and a great fundraising gimmick

Also, people like him, which may make a difference.

Not sure if I love the guy either, but a charismatic, hopeful guy seems to be the type to get elected president as a democrat.

xp

people like him, which may make a difference

not sure this hypothesis has really been sufficiently tested

Shakey otm. Beto's good looking and did wonders but c'mon.

tbh it kind of amazes me that ppl are so eager to run a guy that was beaten by ted cruz against a guy who beat ted cruz by, like, half-remembering a headline from a supermarket tabloid

people like him, which may make a difference.

it's increasingly looking like the progressive base actually *doesn't* like him, and things like that oil money gaffe upthread will tarnish him quickly

also lol J.D. otm

p sure I have friends in Texas that don't get money from Big Oil

You'd be surprised at how many people in Texas get some amount of money, either directly or with a degree or two of separation, from Oil interests.

But I was really riffing on a Doug Sahm line, repurposed to say you can't be a Texas politician and not get energy (i.e. OIL) money.

Being verifiably human is inspiring enough when running against Ted Cruz but in a primary field that consists of other non-sea monsters, there's no particular reason to care about Beto.

I think looking for a "great white (male) hope" is definitely at work in regard to Beto-for-prez fandom.

If it's true that no Texas politician can run without oil money, then no Texas politician should run for president as a Democrat.

All true or relevant or whatever. But so far there is not a single candidate that's been floated that has any clear slam-dunk advantage over Trump (in a world where Trump was elected) other than not being Trump. Which may be enough! People don't like Trump. But ... may not be enough.

I'm not sure what that advantage would look like

(and nobody else does either, which is why the field is going to be so crowded)

Beto is total token white guy who doesn't pronounce hard H sounds in spanish VP material.

inspiring turnout among black and Latinx voters would be #1 to me

I'm not sure what that advantage would look like

Name recognition, charisma/likability? Something that offers an advantage beyond Not Trump, which is an advantage every Dem candidate will begin with. And yeah, inspiring turnout among etc., but I'm not sure who does that, either. Numbers were way up for Dems this past midterm, which took a lot of work and money. But a lot of those races were still relatively close.

iirc

I kinda hate to be this blunt but the key to beating Trump will obviously be turnout of several key constituencies: college educated white women, african americans, and latinx. that's it.

Beto's not gonna deliver any of those.

fwiw, Sanders has the highest favorability with non-whites in this recent CNN poll (see pg 15)

http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2018/images/12/14/rel12e.-.2020.and.economy.pdf

though obviously that could fluctuate a lot if he says anything else dumb

Every person I've met in real life who wants Biden to run is a white male, the people we don't need in 2020.

Harry Potter World is totally saving Florida right now.

If he doesn't run, maybe those doofuses can draft Jim Webb for another go

people who want Biden are the ones who don't think anyone who doesn't look like them can't beat someone else who looks like them. I don't necessarily think he wouldn't have the best shot but it seems like it'd be one step forward vs the GOP, two steps back within the Dem party from the recent midterms.

The woman on my fb feed who is pushing Biden is buying the whole "we-have-to-get-working-class-whites" line.

I think turnout, period, is key, across the board, and that takes time and money, both of which were spent in impressive amounts this past midterm. I'm not sure the race, gender, etc of the candidate matters that much, at least not enough to convey a significant advantage. It's a matter of boots on the ground.

It wasn't white male candidates who carried the democratic party during the midterms.

yeah this is obviously gonna be an all-hands-on-deck scenario

xp

Who cares honestly if they can beat trump. I don’t think I can live through six more years of this.

My heart is with the economic progressives but I’m fine with president whatever who cares

I think that is a v common sentiment

and one that just might, hopefully, deliver us a genuine progressive president