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

[Mr. Morden]

Time to start this thread, as the 2020 presidential primary season is upon us.  I will post news about the potential 2020 presidential candidates making moves towards running in this thread, including their public statements on the matter, visits to early primary states, etc.

First up: Tom Cotton headed to South Carolina:

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/3a167f82393241a281cceb57aaa47e5e/SC--GOP-Silver-Elephant-Dinner

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Last year the event was headlined by Priebus, but the previous four years it was Jindal, Cruz, Rubio, and Santorum, all of whom went on to run for president.

[Mike Thick]

Oh. YEAH.

It's on like Donkey Kong up in this. Thanks for taking on the duty, Mr. Morden!

[/]

Exciting.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

It's never too early .

[This account no longer in use.]

Wikipedia mentions Justin Amash, Chris Christie, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio as potential Republican candidates, as well as Cory Booker and Andrew Cuomo on the Democratic side. There is also, of course, Kanye West, although I doubt he'll actually go through with it.

[Leinad]

Feel The Cotton!

(That's actually clever considering that cotton is a material you can feel #JokeExplainer)

[mufc1878]

If D wins 2016,

it is obvious that Cotton & Haley will run. Maybe Paul again if we get stuck in a terrible intervention. I would like to see Baker run but 4 years is not enough time for the pro-life simpletons to give up their sway in the R party. Rubio can't run unless he's in the governors office in 2018 and even then it'll look terrible, like he never wants to hold a job - he wouldn't be successful against cotton or haley. I am confident Rubio will not be have a successful potus run in 2020.

Adding Gardner, Mike Lee, Flake, Sasse, Ernst and Thune as potentials.

If they win relection: portman & ayotte

If R wins in 2016,

Booker, Harris, Gillibrand, Klobuchar, & Murphy.

[Mr. Morden]

Wikipedia mentions Justin Amash, Chris Christie, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio as potential Republican candidates, as well as Cory Booker and Andrew Cuomo on the Democratic side. There is also, of course, Kanye West, although I doubt he'll actually go through with it.

Right, but that's mixing up people who have themselves said or done something concrete to indicate an interest in running, and those for whom others have speculated that they might run.  The purpose of this thread is to compile tangible evidence that points towards interest on the part of the potential candidate himself (or herself).  So if someone explicitly says that they're not ruling out running, post that here.  Or if they go to an early primary state or go to CPAC or something, post that here.  Whatever indicators we can find out there for presidential candidates, that should be posted here.

[Mr. Morden]

In this story from a few days ago, the New York Times said that "Rubio is likely to run for president again in 2020":

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/us/politics/ted-cruz-names-friends-but-silence-from-gop-brass-deafens.html?mtrref=undefined&mtrref=www.nytimes.com&_r=0

But it's not clear what that's based on.  Should be noted that during Rubio's post-dropout press Q&A, he was asked about a future run for president, and he said that he wasn't thinking that far ahead.

[Mr. Morden]

Some more possible indicators…this year, in addition to the remaining presidential candidates themselves, the following people did speeches at CPAC:

Joni Ernst
Carly Fiorina
Mike Lee
Paul Ryan
Tim Scott
Scott Walker

Fiorina and Walker of course ran for prez this year, but they’d already dropped out of the race by the time of CPAC, so their appearances could be read as interested in either being VP this year or president in 2020.

Also, the Des Moines Register had a story a few days ago about the fact that many eventual presidential candidates from years past started out by doing surrogate visits to Iowa for other candidates in the previous cycle.  Here are the names of some of the out-of-state politicians who visited Iowa in the past year in order to campaign for their presidential candidate of choice.  Some of these might run for president themselves in 2020 or later, or maybe for vice president this year:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/27/whos-running-president-2020-iowa-visits-offer-hints/82230962/

Tammy Baldwin
Corey Booker
Julian Castro
Bill de Blasio
Kirsten Gillibrand
Tim Kaine
Amy Klobuchar
Tom Perez

Marsha Blackburn
Jim DeMint
Cory Gardner
Mike Lee
Kristi Noem
Sarah Palin
Ben Sasse

[Mr. Morden]

A few other tidbits about individual candidates.

Justin Amash last year:

link

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In 2014, the New York Post reported that Cuomo was looking at running for president in 2020, should the Republicans win the White House this time around:

The New York Post says that Cuomo has no intention of challenging Clinton in 2016 (duh), but is gearing up to run for president in 2020, should the GOP win in 2016:

http://nypost.com/2014/11/03/cuomo-might-run-for-president-in-2020-if-hillary-loses-in-2016/

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Last year, Booker said he didn’t want to be president:

http://thehill.com/230020-senate-dem-denies-white-house-aspirations

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[Senator Cris]

IT BEGINS!

[100% pro-life no matter what]

Some more possible indicators…this year, in addition to the remaining presidential candidates themselves, the following people did speeches at CPAC:

Joni Ernst
Carly Fiorina
Mike Lee
Paul Ryan
Tim Scott
Scott Walker

Fiorina and Walker of course ran for prez this year, but they’d already dropped out of the race by the time of CPAC, so their appearances could be read as interested in either being VP this year or president in 2020.

Also, the Des Moines Register had a story a few days ago about the fact that many eventual presidential candidates from years past started out by doing surrogate visits to Iowa for other candidates in the previous cycle.  Here are the names of some of the out-of-state politicians who visited Iowa in the past year in order to campaign for their presidential candidate of choice.  Some of these might run for president themselves in 2020 or later, or maybe for vice president this year:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/27/whos-running-president-2020-iowa-visits-offer-hints/82230962/

Tammy Baldwin
Corey Booker
Julian Castro
Bill de Blasio
Kirsten Gillibrand
Tim Kaine
Amy Klobuchar
Tom Perez

Marsha Blackburn
Jim DeMint
Cory Gardner
Mike Lee
Kristi Noem
Sarah Palin
Ben Sasse

I can share more a bit later, but I was at CPAC this year, and some of them (like Walker and Ryan) had very high profile speaking times (Walker was the opening speaker, for instance).  But, I actually think some of Walker's moves might be towards getting nominated this year as a compromise choice.

[Clark Kent]

Depending on which Republican wins, there might even be a primary challenge. If it's Senator Cruz or Governor Kasich, then they'll be safe, but if it's trump...

[Senator Cris]

33 Senate seats will be up for grabs in 2020. Among these 33 seats, there are some Senators who might be interested in running for President: Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Al Franken (D-MN), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Cory Booker (R-NJ), Mark Warner (D-VA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV).

Back in November, an Arkansas lawmaker proposed a bill that would allow candidates to seek multiple federal offices in the same election. I don't know what's the status of that bill right now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/11/tom-cotton-president-2020_n_6849064.html

[100% pro-life no matter what]

One other CPAC note:

Scott Walker stayed around CPAC for a few hours after his speech and was willing to talk with attendees and take pictures with them.  He was by far the most high profile politician to do that (the only other ones that I met at anything other than a formal organized event were Kelli Ward and Jim Gilmore).

[Crumpets]

Did Kanye say he'd run as an independent, or as a Democrat? A Kanye primary of President Hillary would be one for the books.

[RogueBeaver]

Walker keeping his options open.

[Mr. Morden]

Walker keeping his options open.

Some excerpts:

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[100% pro-life no matter what]

Walker keeping his options open.

Some excerpts:

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I wonder if this means he is keeping his options open for 2016 as a white knight nominee?

[Mr. Morden]

Rubio allies are urging him to run again in 2020, and he's said to be open to it:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/04/politics/marco-rubio-political-future/index.html

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[IceSpear]

You have to have a lot of balls (Can Angel confirm?) to think about running for president again 3 weeks after getting demolished in your home state by a reality TV star and dropping out of the race in disgrace.

[bagelman]

Rubio's such a petty glory hound.

[Young Conservative]

If D wins 2016,

it is obvious that Cotton & Haley will run. Maybe Paul again if we get stuck in a terrible intervention. I would like to see Baker run but 4 years is not enough time for the pro-life simpletons to give up their sway in the R party. Rubio can't run unless he's in the governors office in 2018 and even then it'll look terrible, like he never wants to hold a job - he wouldn't be successful against cotton or haley. I am confident Rubio will not be have a successful potus run in 2020.

Adding Gardner, Mike Lee, Flake, Sasse, Ernst and Thune as potentials.

If they win relection: portman & ayotte

If R wins in 2016,

Booker, Harris, Gillibrand, Klobuchar, & Murphy.

Murphy won't win the senate seat though. #rondesantis2016

[NOT gonna be banned soon]

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