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

[BuckeyeNut]

If a Republican wins, Julian Castro or Sherrod Brown can be possibilities

Sherrod Brown does not want to be President.

[BuckeyeNut]

I know Arkansas cleared the way for Cotton to run for POTUS and re-election to the Senate, but can Sasse do the same in Nebraska?

[BuckeyeNut]

I honestly wouldn't be surprised at another Kasich run, his ego is too strong.

Oh, he certainly will.

[BuckeyeNut]

Martin Heinrich (D-NM) (Senator Dreamboat) has taken up the mantle of attacking the Dakota Access Pipeline. He could be a good candidate. Pro-environment and anti-mass surveillance, but he doesn't have a widely publicized or controversial background to my knowledge (that's what holds Sanders and Warren back). This could be a start of Heinrich raising his profile for a 2020 run. He's pretty young (he'll be 49 in 2020), he's had two terms in the House (2009-2013) and will have been in the Senate for about 8 years. He also doesn't have the stigma of being a coastal liberal.

http://krwg.org/post/heinrich-calls-president-reroute-dakota-access-pipeline

The main drawback of Heinrich in the primary is that he had an A rating from the NRA at one point. Even Sanders has a D-, and it was a major issue for him.

But otherwise, yeah, I think he might be our best bet actually.

What he has at present is what will matter. Sanders used to have a very high rating. But it just goes to show the NRA has become another political hack group in the past 6-8 years.

[BuckeyeNut]

The Brown piece makes Tim Ryan's decision to remain in the House much more understandable - if Brown is elected nationwide in 2020 he gets the Senate appointment, and if Brown isn't on the ticket/loses nationwide then he challenges Portman in a Trump six-year midterm in 2022.

Or he's a young guy in a safe seat on the right side of a massive generational bottleneck in the House...

I don't see why anything in that piece indicates a Brown 2020 run any more than any of the various other pieces on Brown have. He's a nice guy, he has the right bio if he wants to do it.

But he doesn't want to do it. He's never wanted to do it. We could pretty transparently *see * if he wanted to do it (he'd pop up in this thread a lot more, that's for sure), and he's not doing any of the things that would indicate he wants to.

He doesn't want to do it.

I mostly agree but he's candid about wanting the VP job once he was a finalist and about regretting not being able to campaign across the Midwest. That doesn't mean he's insincere now when he expresses a lack of desire to run for president. But presumably, if he's re-elected in one of the handful of states Democrats need to flip to take back the White House, the buzz about him running will grow and possibly affect him a way similar to being in VP contention did.


As for Tim Ryan, sounds like he may be eyeing running in 2020 himself and being elected governor in 2018 is too fast to turn around and run for president. (At least, it has been for a few decades.)

Nah, Ryan wants to be Speaker.

I am also thoroughly unconvinced Hillary putting out a new book means she's looking to run.

[BuckeyeNut]

Tim Ryan headed to Iowa.

Sounds like that hasn't been confirmed on the record yet, but that would be his second trip to Iowa within the span of a few months, plus he was in South Carolina last month, and will be in New Hampshire next month (plus an interview with NH TV station WMUR a few weeks ago).  He also campaigned for Clinton in NH ahead of the primary there last year.  He seems to be doing early state visits like no one else except O'Malley.

My take on this is he's prepping for a new Speaker/Leadership run. He's not in line for it, and he'll need the support of the 2018 class to win. It's not like NH, IA, and SC are the only states he's visiting.

[BuckeyeNut]

Evidently missed in this thread, but Rep. Tim Ryan (OH-13) doesn't know if he's running for President or not.