All the 2020 Election Presidential Candidates
a number of others still suspected to join the primary, a broad range of independents
and third-party candidates, and, very likely, a primary contest for the Republican incumbent,
President Donald J Trump.
Technically speaking, there are over 600 candidates, if you count everyone who has filed with the
FEC.
At least one of these people were kicked off the Dr. Phil show.
Yes, he's actually running.
And like Mr. Vegan—that's his actual legal name--most of the people who have filed to
run don't have anything resembling a chance of even having their names mentioned on a
major media outlet, let alone becoming a serious contender for the presidency.
And, there are a handful of significant potential candidates who have yet to file.
So, in this video, I'll attempt to give you a broad overview of the serious 2020 contenders
for the highest office in the land, and answer the question...
Who's actually running?
(Everyone puts their lighters in the air)
INDEPENDENTS
Let's start with the independents and third party candidates.
In 2016, they played an unusually large role, partly because both the Democratic and Republican
candidates were unprecedentedly unpopular.
If the two major parties do a better job of holding the favor of the American people,
these candidates will likely play a smaller role in 2020, but they are still worth a little
examination.
Howard Schultz, a former Democrat, and former CEO of Starbucks is, so far the most talked
about potential independent candidate.
Despite having no political experience, Schultz got his very own CNN town hall, but some remain
skeptical that Schultz has the capacity to run a serious third-way campaign.
Howard Schultz says...
Oh, isn't that great!?!
I know a lot of regular hard working people who know frankly a lot more about politics
than does Mr. Schultz.
Mark Cuban has also gotten some attention teasing a potential run, but it's not very
likely.
He recently told NY Daily News,
"It really would take the exact right set of circumstances."
The billionaire also warned in the outlet,
"Rich people are stupid."
(He actually said that!)
Fashion model Ronnie Kroell is running a campaign for president or publicity, as well.
Akon has also expressed serious interest in making an independent run, which probably
shouldn't be taken too seriously, as had John McAffee, of McAffee anti-virus, before deciding
to declare himself for the Libertarian Party.
LIBERTARIANS
Also running for the Libertarian party is the former Vice Chair of the LNC, Arvin Vohra,
and Adam Kokesh, a former Republican and anti-war activist.
But of course the most fun candidate for the party is, as always, 7-time failed presidential
candidate Vermin Supreme, the iconic boot-as-a-hat-wearing joke candidate, who has previously run on
a four-point platform of:
Like Mr. Supreme, Sam Seder, of the Majority Report, is running a joke campaign in the
Libertarian party, and has actually come up in first place in the early polling of the
field by a group called Third Party Watch, although it should be noted this is not a
reliable pollster.
Republican congressman Justin Amash is also considering joining the Libertarian party
primary race.
GREENS
The declared Green Party Candidates so far include, Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza-Curry,
who was also 2016 Green Party primary candidate; Ian Schlakman, former co-chair of the Maryland
Green Party; and Dario Hunter, who serves on the Youngstown, Ohio Board of Education.
Also considering the race for the Green Party nomination is former governor, conspiracy
theorist, and wrestler, Jesse "the Mind" Ventura.
Howie Hawkins, a co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, may also run.
Jill Stein's running mate in 2016, Ajamu Baraka, is also considered a potential candidate.
AMERICAN SOLIDARITY PARTY
The American Solidarity Party, a Christian faith-based political party, with conservative
social leanings, and liberal economic leanings, is spotlighting Brian Caroll, Joshua Perkins,
and Joe Schriner as their potential candidates.
Okay, now let's get into the real candidates.
REPUBLICANS
For the Republican Party, President Donald Trump filed with the FEC all the way back
on January 20, 2017 for his 2020 run, and nothing short of a conviction in the Senate
is likely to stop him for running.
Like all incumbent presidents, Mr. Trump will be running on his current record, which includes
an unusual mix of peace talks with North Korea, tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the
rich, a trade war with China, renegotiating NAFTA, a draconian immigration policy, planned
withdrawal from Syria, repealed environmental protections, a partial repeal of the Dodd-Frank
Act, cuts to agricultural subsidies, weakening of the CFPB, reinstating asset forfeiture,
and increasing military spending, just to name a few.
Trump's economy features a reduction in unemployment, by standard measures, an increase in GDP,
and an increase in the deficits and national debt.
As of January of 2019, Mr. Trump continues to enjoy an approval rating of 87% among Republicans,
indicating that he is unlikely to lose to any primary challenge he may face.
But while he is absolutely the front-runner in the Republican party, he will almost certainly
face a primary challenge.
Bill Weld, the Libertarian VP candidate in 2016 and former Republican Governor of Massachusetts
, has already declared an exploratory committee to seek the Republican nomination.
Forming an exploratory committee is not technically a declaration that a candidate is running,
but it is the first step, and those who announce exploratory committees do typically go on
to formally announce a run.
Ohio governor John Kasich, former senator Bob Corker, and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan,
have also all considered giving Trump a primary challenge, and have not ruled out the possibility.
Even fast talking conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has teased a run,
And while Shapiro has criticized Trump in the past, he has been pretty clear that he'll
supporting him in 2020.
Of course, that won't stop his fans from continuing to petition him to run, but it most probably
isn't gonna happen.
There have also been calls for popular former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley to run.
She too, has endorsed the President, and claims she will be campaigning for his re-election.
Former governor and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a vocal critic of Trump, has
made it clear that he will not be seeking the 2020 nomination, but has signalled that
he might endorse a primary opponent.
He told CNN's Jake Tapper,
"I'm going to see what the alternatives are."
Jeff Flake, yet another vocal critic of the president caught some attention and much speculation,
but he has clearly indicated that he isn't going to run.
He told C BS news,
"I've always said that I do hope that there is a Republican who challenges the president
in the primary.
I still hope that somebody does, but that somebody won't be me.
I will not be a candidate."
While the president's popularity among Republicans indicate that he will likely beat any primary
challenger who comes his way, his general favorability ratings are a serious problem.
Trump's disapproval rate is around 53%, while his approval rate is 41%.
While indeed, he was quite unpopular when he was elected president, he was then running
against a historically unpopular democrat.
Unpopular presidents are more likely to face a serious primary challenge after their first
term, and presidents who do face a serious primary challenge are less likely to win re-election.
President Jimmy Carter secured just 51% of the democratic vote when he was primaried
in 1980 by Ted Kennedy and Jerry Brown.
George HW Bush won 73 percent of the vote when he was primaried by Pat Buchanon and
others in 1992.
73 might sound like a lot, but his son won 98% of the vote in the republican primary
in 2004.
An incumbent Bill Clinton locked down 89% of the vote in his 1996 primary, as did Obama
in 2012.
Trump certainly defies the odds in numerous ways, but if history is any indication at
all, a serious primary challenge for the president would be a bad omen for his reelection chances...
...which brings us to the Democrats....
DEMOCRATS
First, let's quickly mention some prominent Democrats who are definitely not running.
Hilary Clinton, Tom Steyer, Michael Avenatti, Eric Garcetti, Andrew Cuomo, Eric Holder,
Sherrod Brown and Michael Bloomberg have all confirmed that they are not running for president
in 2020.
Richard Ojeda, the West Virginia State Senator who was running an early bold and aggressive
anti-corruption campaign, dropped out of the race near the end of January, 2019.
But there are plenty of Democratic candidates in the race, some of whom, you may never heard
of.
Maryland Representative John Delaney was the first major democrat to declare his candidacy,
but few seemed to take notice, as he continues to struggle to show up in the polls.
While a harsh critic of Trump, Delaney markets himself as a pragmatic, moderate with strong
bipartisan bonefides.
For example, on one of the most important issues for Democrats, health care, Delaney
advocates for a path toward universal health care, but his plan is pretty conservative.
His health care proposal does not touch medicare, rather it creates a new public plan, which
people can opt out of for a tax credit, and the private, employer-system would remain
in tact.
Marrianne Williamson is a spiritual teacher and published author, who has yet to make
a mark in the polls.
Her platform includes a strong reparations plan.
Her proposal involves spending between 200 and 500 billion dollars over a twenty year
period on educational and economic programs, to be determined by a council of trusted black
community leaders.
She also supports medicare for all, and a holistic set of policies to improve public
health.
Tulsi Gabbard has generally been polling under 1%, but hit 1.1% in the latest survey by Emerson.
Gabbard is known perhaps first and foremost for her opposition to regime change wars.
The Iraq War veteran has argued that Assad is not an enemy of the United States, and
takes a generally anti-interventionist stance of foreign policy.
While Gabbard did not support AOC's Green New Deal resolution, she has sponsored alternative
environmental legislation in the past.
She supports HR676, the house's medicare-for-all plan.
Andrew Yang is another minor candidate, but one with surging popularity online, enough
that he has passed the donor threshold required to make the primary debates, and he has begun
to hit 1% in some of the polls.
Yang's central platform is Universal Basic Income: a plan to give every American 18-65
one thousand dollars every month, no questions asked.
He has also endorsed the idea of expanding medicare to all, but is also open to other
ideas about moving toward a single-payer system.
Jay Inslee is another minor candidate, currently polling at .8%, focusing his campaign on a
single issue.
The Governor of Washington boasts a long history of Green governance, and supports the idea
of a Green New Deal.
His plan includes four principles: transitioning to clean energy; investing in jobs, infrastructure
and innovation; fighting for environmental justice and economic inclusion; and ending
subsidies to fossil fuel companies.
John Hickenlooper, also polling around .8%, lays out no specific policy platform on his
website, but he does tout his experience and political accomplishments: eliminating a 70
million dollar deficit as mayor of Denver, and growing the economy and reducing methane
emissions as governor of Colorado.
He also boasts that his heath care program brought the state's coverage up to nearly
95 percent.
Kirsten Gillibrand, also currently polling at around .8%, is surprisingly, by some measures
the most progressive candidate in the race.
Five Thirty Eight dot come ranks her as the most anti-Trump person in congress, while
Gov Track ranks her as the most liberal senator in the country, even to the left of Bernie
Sanders.
She is a cosponsor of Bernie's Medicare for All Plan, and the Green New Deal.
Despite being quite liberal, according to the newest polling data by Quinnipiac, her
support is strongest amongst conservative and moderate voters.
Julian Castro, now polling around 1%, is a former Obama Administration HUD secretary,
and a former mayor of San Antonio.
He is pro Green New Deal, supports investment in public housing and universal pre-K education.
On immigration, he has been a vocal critic of Trump's policies, and supports a path to
citizenship.
Pete Buttigieg, once polling around 1%, is now up to an average of 2.2%, even hitting
as high as 4% in the latest poll by Quinnipiac.
Buttigieg is Mayor of the small municipality of South Bend, Indiana.
He is an Afghanistan War veteran, a Rhodes Scholar and a Harvard graduate.
If elected, he would also be the first openly gay president.
Mayor Pete is pro Green New Deal, and supports a gradual transition to single payer—in
the meantime, he's pushing Medicare for all who want it.
Buttigieg has received a CNN town hall, but has technically not declared his candidacy—just
an exploratory committee.
Another mayor in the race, who just recently declared, is Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne
Messam.
Messam largely remains a mystery among the mainstream candidates, having received little
media coverage.
He also doesn't have much in the way of policy positions on his website.
But he is proposing to wipe out more than 1.5 trillion dollars in student debt.
He also has a history of fighting for gn control, and passed a living wage for city workers.
He's so far not showing up in the polls, but that may very well change as he gains a bit
of msm exposure.
Also just getting a little attention at the moment is Mike Gravel, who served as a US
Senator throughout the 1970s (1969-1981).
The 88 year old retiree has not technically announced, but he has announced an exploratory
committee and has an announcement scheduled for April 8th.
Astoundingly, this candidate openly admitted his low chances of actually winning in the
very tweet that launched his campaign:
"I am considering running in the 2020 Democratic primary.
The goal will not be to win, but to bring a critique of American imperialism to the
Democratic debate stage.
The website (mikegravel.org) is under construction.
Official announcement will be in the coming days."
On her campaign website, Amy Klobuchar criticizes divisive politics, gridlock and grandstanding,
indicating that she would aim to be president who acts based on compromise, consensus and
concessions.
Not surprisingly, one of her big platform proposals is a trillion dollar infrastructure
investment, an idea well positioned for centrist support, as "we need to fix our crumbling
infrastructure" is probably one of just two things all Washington politicians agree
with--the other being that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy.
Klobuchar is indeed, a moderate democrat, having voted with Trump 30% of the time according
to 538, and vote view ranks her as more conservative than 75% of democrats in the senate.
She is a cosponsor of the Green New Deal resolution, but not a cosponsor of the Sanders Medicare-for-all
bill.
Instead she supports a Medicaid buy-in expansion.
Klobuchar has seen declines in her polling as of late, currently averaging at 1.8%.
Cory Booker has also seen declining poll numbers, and currently sits at 5.8%.
While's his voting record is, overall, amongst the most progressive in the Senate, he has
a history of raising funds from Wall street and big pharma.
He famously defended Bain Capital in the 2012 presidential race, and helped to vote down
an amendment co-sponsored by Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar that would have allowed
Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada.
Still, Booker is co-sponsor of the GND, as well as Bernie's Medicare-for-all bill, and
is ranked as the 5th most anti-Trump voter in the Senate.
Booker has come out forcefully against the NRA, and perhaps the strongest moment in his
CNN townhall was when he said that he is "the only person in this race who has had shootings
on their block."
Elizabeth Warren is undeniably one of the most progressive candidates in the race.
Vote view ranks her as the most liberal member of congress, and five thrity eight ranks her
as the 3rd most anti-trump voter in congress.
She created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency which forced financial firms
to return a whopping 12 billion dollars to around 30 million consumers, who were victims
to scams other predatory practices.
Her presidential campaign centres on typical progressive issues like ending Washington
corruption and rebuilding the middle class.
She has also introduced some more novel policy suggestions, like breaking up big tech companies
and protecting family farmers against agribusiness mergers.
She lost some credit amongst Sanders supporters, for failing to declare herself one of them
during the 2016 primaries.
She has also declared herself open to different paths toward a single payer health care system.
Still, Warren is a cosponsor on Bernie's Medicare-for-all bill.
She's also, of course, a cosponsor of the Green New Deal.
Warren is currently polling at 5.8%.
Beto O'Rourke has been surging in the polls since he formally announced his candidacy,
and now sits at 10% support.
Despite facing huge backlash in the early days of the campaign, he broke records by
entering the 2020 race with a 6.1 million dollar haul.
Beto gained national attention for his Senate race, which posed a serious threat to Republican
incumbent Ted Cruz.
Still, he is widely criticized for lacking substance and specific policy suggestions.
Beto has expressed support for the Green New Deal, but has taken oil money, and voted in
support oil and other fossil fuel interests.
Another financial concern that while he vocally opposes PAC money, during his Senate race,
he actually received individual contributions from bundling done by a super PAC.
Beto ranked among the more conservative Democratic members of congress.
Still, he is an aggressive critic of Donald Trump's signature policy—the Wall.
Beto has demonstrable knowledge of border crossing and border town crime statistics
as well as personal experience from representing El Paso to back up his rhetoric.
Kamala Harris has in recent weeks declined in the polls, losing her third place spot
to Beto, and now sits just behind him, with 9.6% support.
A former prosecutor, she has faced serious criticism over her 'tough on crime' criminal
justice record, while her campaign has argued that she was actually ahead of the country
on numerous criminal justice issues.
An article by Vox suggests a good reason for the totally opposite perspectives:
"She pushed for programs that helped people find jobs instead of putting them in prison,
but also fought to keep people in prison even after they were proved innocent.
She refused to pursue the death penalty against a man who killed a police officer, but also
defended California's death penalty system in court.
She implemented training programs to address police officers' racial biases, but also
resisted calls to get her office to investigate certain police shootings."
On most issues, Harris is relatively progressive.
She is the 7th most anti-trump voter in congress, and vote view ranks her as more liberal than
97% of Democrats in congress.
She is a cosponsor of the Green New Deal and Bernie's Medic---are for all bill.
In April of 2018, she pledged not to accept any more corporate PAC money, although she
was a major recipient PAC money prior that that.
Bernie Sanders is widely regarded as the most progressive candidate in the race.
The self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist sponsored the Senate's medicare-for-all bill, and popularized
numerous progressive policy positions during his 2016 run for president, as well as through
his group, Our Revolution.
Bernie supports tuition free public colleges and universities, campaign finance reform,
and the Green New Deal.
It's probably safe to say that his top priority is addressing income and wealth inequality.
While broad analyses of his voting record generally put Sanders in the same range as
other progressives—he is in fact less anti-Trump than Warren and Gillibrand, for example, by
the 538 analysis—Bernie is clearly the furthest left when you actually examine his policy
proposals.
Warren, for example, proposed a 2% wealth tax on Americans with more than 50 million
dollars, with an additional 1% for billionaires.
Sanders, on the other hand, introduced a bill to collect 77% of estates worth more than
a billion dollars, a return to the top marginal tax rates of post the post war era, when top
rates ranged between 70 and 90%.
According to RCP polling averages, Bernie Sanders is in first place amongst declared
candidates, with an RCP average of 22.6%.
However, there is one candidate, still undeclared, who, on average, polls even higher.
Joe Biden, currently sits at an average of 29.8% support, and has lead the democratic
field in all major polls except a recent one by Emerson, in which he was tied with Bernie
Sanders.
Still, he is by no means a shoe-in for the nomination.
The popular former vice president has faced backlash for relatively recent kind words
about Mike Pence, and for much older comments, in which he took credit for drafting the Patriot
Act.
Then, there's Anita Hill, and I have not even touched the issues I went into detail about
in my 5 problems for Joe Biden video.
Overall, Biden's congressional voting record puts him squarely in the middle of the democratic
party of the time, stretching all the way from 1973 to 2009.
Despite this, Biden has proclaimed, while accidentally all but declaring his candidacy...
Biden has a well-documented history of gaffes, and has two failed runs for the democratic
nomination under his belt.
More missteps seem to be continuing, even before he's made a formal, intentional announcement.
After his allies floated the idea of him running with Stacey Abrams as an out-of-the-gate VP
choice, she said she would not run for second place, which seems to indicate that she wasn't
asked about the idea before his team began pushing it in the press.
Still, I wouldn't count Joe Biden out.
After declaring his candidacy and announcing a large first-day fundraising haul, Beto O'Rourke
surged in the polls.
Biden is, himself, reportedly thinking seriously about his first day haul, and if he manages
to out raise Bernie and Beto, he too, may experience a bump in support.
Already at the top of the field, his path to victory only requires him to maintain his
current level of support and pick up the voters of other establishment candidates, as they
exit the race.
Aside from Biden, and Stacey Abrams, several other prominent democrats have publicly expressed
interest in a primary run, including US Senator Michael Bennet, Governor Steve Bullock, Mayor
Bill de Blasio, Former Governor Terry McAuliffe, and US Representatives, Seth Moulton, Tim
Ryan, and Eric Swalwell.
While none of these individuals have yet to decline to run, the window to declare is closing.
The first debates will take place in June, and to make the cut, prospective candidates
must either gather 65,000 donors or attain at least 1% in at least three major polls.
The total number of debate participants is capped at 20, with priority given to candidates
who meet both thresholds.
With so many candidates already declared, the undeclared candidates need to get in soon
or throw in the towel, as voters turn their attention to candidates who meet another threshold:
Who's actually running?
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