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.

[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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[Mr. Morden]

Walker keeping his options open.

Some excerpts:

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[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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[Mr. Morden]

Guys, can we please leave your own personal predictions of who should run or what the electoral map will look like for other threads?  There are plenty of other threads for that.  This thread is for tracking news on what the prospective 2020 presidential candidates are doing.

The news today is that Mike Lee is looking to move into the Senate leadership:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/lee-leadership-senate-221818

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I leave it to you to decipher whether that means Lee is more or less likely to run for president in a few years.

[Mr. Morden]

In yet another sign that Rubio is looking to run again, he's apparently planning to avoid taking any job on Wall Street because it would be a political liability for a future run:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/04/05/rubio-thinks-wall-st-is-kiss-death-for-second-run-at-white-house.html

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[Mr. Morden]

Because I only started this thread a few weeks ago, I'm still catching up on news from months ago.  E.g., in February, Justin Amash sounded like someone with presidential ambitions:

http://rare.us/story/would-justin-amash-run-for-president/

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[Mr. Morden]

Ryan not ruling out a run for president in 2020 or beyond:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/04/will-paul-ryan-run-for-president-222189

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[Mr. Morden]

Christie says it’s his intention to return to the private sector when his term ends, but says “you never say never” on a future run for president or VP:

http://nj1015.com/christie-its-time-for-me-to-make-some-money/

[Mr. Morden]

Susana Martinez is using her PAC like someone with an eye on national office, whether that be the presidency or the vice presidency:

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/366095d9fa6b4ebaa91c291c2c1f11a2/NM--New-Mexico-Governor-Fundraising

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In other Martinez news, she’s just gone hard after Trump, so I wouldn’t be expecting her to show up on his veep list in the near future:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/19/new-mexico-gov-susana-martinez-makes-sharp-critique-of-trump-at-rga-donor-event/

[Mr. Morden]

Rand Paul on whether he’ll run next time:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/rand-back-senate-222281

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[Mr. Morden]

Top Rubio supporter says he thinks Rubio runs again.

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I think that's right.  With Trump as the nominee this time, Cruz is pretty much a lock to run again in 2020.  So yeah, Rubio would probably prefer that Cruz be nominated this time, so that he'll be out of the picture by 2020. 

[Mr. Morden]

Mike Lee has managed to get himself on the RNC Rules Committee:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/twelve-thirty-seven/2016/05/mike-lee-convention-rules-committee-222758

which means that he might just have a hand in any early changes being made in the rules for the 2020 presidential primaries (which Lee himself might be running in).

[Mr. Morden]

Cruz 2020:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/ted-cruz-faces-reality-and-turns-to-2020/481152/

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[Mr. Morden]

Ryan talks 2020, denies interest (but what else would you expect him to say?):

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/279213-ryan-ill-step-down-as-convention-chairman-if-trump-asks

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[Mr. Morden]

22:30 of this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF4GSbqEIEE

Rubio asked if he’ll become a lobbyist, run for governor in 2018, run for president in 2020, etc.?  Rubio rules out becoming a lobbyist or running for governor.  Doesn’t address the question of whether he might run for president again.

[Mr. Morden]

More Cruz 2020 talk:

http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Cruz-what-next-7729331.php

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[Mr. Morden]

Ed Kilgore has a new story on Cotton, and how he's positioning himself for either the Trump or post-Trump GOP:

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/05/tom-cotton-has-both-a-trump-and-post-trump-plan.html

[Mr. Morden]

In this story about Rubio saying that he’s up for speaking at this year’s RNC, he says it’s a “safe assumption” that he’ll run for office again:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/26/politics/marco-rubio-going-to-convention-donald-trump/index.html

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[Mr. Morden]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/marco-rubio-campaign-223696

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[Mr. Morden]

Cotton is asked about 2020, and invokes Dumb & Dumber:

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/tom-cotton-run-future-223673

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[Mr. Morden]

Cruz will be attending the Faith & Freedom conference.

Numerous 2016 presidential candidates who could conceivably run again will be there (including the current nominee, Donald Trump):

http://www.roadtomajority.com

Carson
Cruz
Fiorina
Rubio

Huckabee, Kasich, and Paul are invited, but looks like not confirmed to attend at this point.

Meanwhile Blackburn and Ernst are confirmed to attend, potentially to audition for vice president.