Democratic Party Presidential Candidates for 2020

[Kara Spengler]

OMG he's going to win again!

Not necessarily as polls like that are useless because of the electoral college. It is also very early in the process.

 

[Kara Spengler]

How do y'all feel about a Buttigeg/Harris ticket?

Buttigeg may be gay, but he's white, male, and ex-military, so possibly more palatable to the "average voter."

TBH, I'll be voting "whichever Democrat," but I'd like to see whoever stands the best chance vs. Trump, which IMHO means whoever has the widest appeal. The two current "top runners" according to pollsters -- Bernie: old and maybe too whacky for some. Biden: sexual-harrassment stuff isn't a good start for wide appeal.

Buttigeg and anyone. I do not know much about Harris though.

I keep finding even MORE things to like about Pete. The latest is that he is learning ASL.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Another way to look at it is that in 2016 the good became the enemy of the perfect, so to speak. A lot of Bernie supporters refused to vote for Hillary in protest. By a lot I mean enough to throw the election to a monster.

That could happen again, if people vote for their most ideal candidate rather than the one polling best against Trump. Not that that’s any guarantee.

Red herring. You can not do a great job of predicting what individuals will do if their candidate does not get the nod. Maybe they will stay home. Maybe they will do a write in. It also matters where they are, if they were concentrated in states HRC won anyway their effect of donnie winning was negligible.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Polls of “likely voters” are skewed toward old white people, who of course are going to prefer old white men. Not enough of them vote Dem to secure the election.

The Dem candidate has to get out the vote with every other demographic in order to win, while not alienating moderate white women.

Biden can’t do this, but Harris definitely could.

Media sexism and media conservatism are strongly arrayed against any female candidate. For either Harris or Warren to survive, they will need to do an end run around this somehow.

ABC World News Tonight just put up a poll that illustrated this point perfectly. It shows Biden and Sanders leading the Democratic candidate poll with double-digit percentages (17 and 11 respectively), and Warren and Harris at the bottom at just 4 percent each. 35 percent are undecided.

 

[Pamela]

This article shows how several different questions were answered. (Keeping in mind that polls are the Devil’s Work.)

Biden takes the Democrats' early lead, with signs of a generational showdown

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll

abcnews.go.com

Also this — a lot of people have figured out that the vaunted economy benefits those in power.

 

[Ryanna Enfield]

I suppose it was inevitable that the Democratic party, as it became more and more diverse, would see a generational showdown. The older (60's and 70's) white women in my family are currently all in for Biden. They will definitely vote for whoever is the Democratic 2020 Presidential Candidate, but it has caused some tension in the family, who are usually very cohesive in our hate of Trump.

The arguments have turned more towards how really progressive candidates will destroy the Democratic Party with their socialist ideas like Medicare For All, and The Green New Deal. To me, these ideas are not pipe dreams, but necessary. I feel like we don't have time to wait for moderates to be able to stomach these changes. For me, it is far too early to back anyone at this point, but I really feel strongly that we need a much younger generation in charge. Our kids are going to have to live in a terrifying future filled with impacts from Climate Change, and older generations have consistently failed them. It is time to hand over the reins to generations who actually have a vested interest in the future.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Um... what?

I'm really not sure how to take this. Is he wanting to help the DNC, or completely upend them?

 

[Veritable Quandry]

It's going to be hard to run as the Democratic nominee if he is running against the Democratic Party.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Polls of “likely voters” are skewed toward old white people, who of course are going to prefer old white men. Not enough of them vote Dem to secure the election.

The Dem candidate has to get out the vote with every other demographic in order to win, while not alienating moderate white women.

Biden can’t do this, but Harris definitely could.

Media sexism and media conservatism are strongly arrayed against any female candidate. For either Harris or Warren to survive, they will need to do an end run around this somehow.

Which basically means pretty soon we will have a President Pete since he is in third amongst the Ds behind the typical candidates (of course, numbers will probably change between now and the election).

 

[Kara Spengler]

I suppose it was inevitable that the Democratic party, as it became more and more diverse, would see a generational showdown. The older (60's and 70's) white women in my family are currently all in for Biden. They will definitely vote for whoever is the Democratic 2020 Presidential Candidate, but it has caused some tension in the family, who are usually very cohesive in our hate of Trump.

The arguments have turned more towards how really progressive candidates will destroy the Democratic Party with their socialist ideas like Medicare For All, and The Green New Deal. To me, these ideas are not pipe dreams, but necessary. I feel like we don't have time to wait for moderates to be able to stomach these changes. For me, it is far too early to back anyone at this point, but I really feel strongly that we need a much younger generation in charge. Our kids are going to have to live in a terrifying future filled with impacts from Climate Change, and older generations have consistently failed them. It is time to hand over the reins to generations who actually have a vested interest in the future.

I was in for a surprise when I talked to my in-laws, who are retired. Both of them did not want Bernie, and because of his age. This was before Biden entered but I assume they would be against him for the same reasons.

 

[Brenda Archer]

Which basically means pretty soon we will have a President Pete since he is in third amongst the Ds behind the typical candidates (of course, numbers will probably change between now and the election).

His inexperience and relative conservatism make me a little nervous, but Obama was conservative too and I'm sure we'd all wish for him to come back now. One thing I love about Pete (and Barack too) is that he's a perpetual student who knows he needs good advisers. Machiavelli had a timeless point about that - judge a ruler by his advisers. I think if Mayor Pete chose good ones we'd be okay.

 

[Free]

It's going to be hard to run as the Democratic nominee if he is running against the Democratic Party.

Isn't that how he ran the first time?

 

[Cristalle]

His inexperience and relative conservatism make me a little nervous, but Obama was conservative too and I'm sure we'd all wish for him to come back now. One thing I love about Pete (and Barack too) is that he's a perpetual student who knows he needs good advisers. Machiavelli had a timeless point about that - judge a ruler by his advisers. I think if Mayor Pete chose good ones we'd be okay.

Considering that he attended those secret "What to do about Bernie Sanders" dinners, I doubt we'd get anything different from the same overlords who brought us the financial crisis.

 

[Anya Ristow]

Considering that he attended those secret "What to do about Bernie Sanders" dinners, I doubt we'd get anything different from the same overlords who brought us the financial crisis.

"Isn't he running against the whole democratic party?"

Yes, he is. [NYT]

That he's straight-forward enough to just say it is one of the things I like about him. Some of his supporters wish he would go further and make an overt acknowledgment of what happened to him in 2016. He's at least being more diplomatic than that.

The matter of What To Do About Bernie and the larger imperative of party unity has, for example, hovered over a series of previously undisclosed Democratic dinners in New York and Washington organized by the longtime party financier Bernard Schwartz. The gatherings have included scores from the moderate or center-left wing of the party, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California; Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader; former Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia; Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., himself a presidential candidate; and the president of the Center for American Progress, Neera Tanden.

 

[Pamela]

I didn’t see Biden’s whole speech in Pittsburg, but what I saw impressed me. He was unscripted, authentic, and forceful. Also I saw a poll post-speech which said his percent jumped to 39. A snippet:

CNN Poll: Biden solidifies front-runner status with post-announcement bump

Former Vice President Joe Biden's announcement of a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination earned him an 11-point polling bounce, leaving him head and shoulders above the rest of the Democratic candidates.

www.cnn.com

 

[Pamela]

Wow. But if this is so, why does the intro call Texas deep red. How deep red can it be if Dems are polling like this? Also: Beto was that close to Cruz ..The cities and suburbs are mostly blue.

Beto, Bernie And Biden Poll Within 2 Points Of Trump In Texas

Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden are all polling within two points of President Donald Trump in the deep red state of Texas

dailycaller.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

I was a Bernie supporter in 2016, but despite that stance, I can't blame the Democratic party for treating Sanders like a problem. He is not a party member, but he's using the party mechanisms and resources to run his primary campaign.

That's a basic conflict of interest and it's unreasonable to expect Democratic party members to just grin and bear it.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Wow. But if this is so, why does the intro call Texas deep red. How deep red can it be if Dems are polling like this? Also: Beto was that close to Cruz ..The cities and suburbs are mostly blue.

Texas is pretty damn red outside the urban areas, but those urban areas -- Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio -- have been swelling with non-Texan immigrants for several decades now. The result is a large reservoir of frustrated and repressed Dems, who have just assumed they're in a tiny minority and basically don't even try. I suspect that the Beto campaign has breathed life into the sleeping purple giant.

 

[Pamela]

Texas is pretty damn red outside the urban areas, but those urban areas -- Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio -- have been swelling with non-Texan immigrants for several decades now. The result is a large reservoir of frustrated and repressed Dems, who have just assumed they're in a tiny minority and basically don't even try. I suspect that the Beto campaign has breathed life into the sleeping purple giant.

And yet Texas has always had this liberal element* that never quite got exterminated, although with gerrymandering it’s come close. It’s like everywhere else that votes are suppressed, things are bluer than elections suggest.

* Ann Richards, LBJ got a lot of progressive legislation passed, Ralph Yarborough, etc.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Mayor Pete was doing the rounds on the Daily Show last night.