The “Who is running in 2020?” tea leaves thread, Part 4

[Mr. Morden]

https://www.cpr.org/news/story/sen-michael-bennet-will-declare-for-president-hes-told-friends

Colorado’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet has told friends he will declare for president, multiple sources close to the senator have told CPR. He told people in a conference call on Wednesday.
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A formal announcement is expected in the coming days. Bennet is scheduled Thursday to be on CBS This Morning, “to talk about his plans for the future,” according to a tweet from the show's official account.
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Another source who was on Wednesday’s phone call said Bennet has been given a green light from his doctors and “he's under pressure to get moving if they're going raise the money to be viable and qualify for the debate.”

[Mr. Morden]

https://twitter.com/MichaelBennet/status/1123695828093292546

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michael-bennet-presidential-run

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., will announce "within days" that he'll be throwing his hat in the ring to join the other 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, just weeks after he announced he's cancer-free.

A friend of the two-term senator told Fox News on Wednesday that Bennet would announce his plans, as his team announced they have "exciting news to share."

Bennet is scheduled to appear on "CBS This Morning" on Thursday "to talk about his plans for the future."

[Rookie Yinzer]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/29/politics/stacey-abrams-senate-2020/index.html

Stacey Abrams has decided against running for the Senate from Georgia in 2020, according to a Democratic official.

Abrams met with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on Monday to inform him of her plans.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Abrams will focus on her voting rights project. She has not decided whether to seek any other office at this time.

If we don't pick-up that seat it's her fault and I'll never forgive her for it.

She isn’t running for President. She’s running for Governor and if there is anyone who can turn our folks out in a potential Dem midterm it’s her. We need Democratic Governors just as much if not more than Senators. Whoever we nominate in GA-SEN WILL get 47-48 percent of the vote just from being a Democrat. They need to find their way to 50. It’s not on Abrams if they lose.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

https://twitter.com/MichaelBennet/status/1123695828093292546

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michael-bennet-presidential-run

Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., will announce "within days" that he'll be throwing his hat in the ring to join the other 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, just weeks after he announced he's cancer-free.

A friend of the two-term senator told Fox News on Wednesday that Bennet would announce his plans, as his team announced they have "exciting news to share."

Bennet is scheduled to appear on "CBS This Morning" on Thursday "to talk about his plans for the future."

Keep your ego in check, and stop gunning for cabinet positions everyone! We need flipping senate candidates for crying out loud (not talking about Bennett in this case but the broader situation).

[Mr. Morden]

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/De-Blasio-Decision-Presidential-Run-New-York-City-Elections-2020-US-509392421.html

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he will announce this month whether he is joining the growing list of candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president.

De Blasio said Thursday that he would make his decision "in the month of May." He said he'll let people know as soon as he has something.

[Mr. Morden]

Earlier this week, when Abrams said she wasn't running for Senate, she said she thought she was better suited to an executive role, but gave no timeline about a decision on running for president, governor, or anything else:

https://www.wabe.org/stacey-abrams-says-she-wont-run-for-the-senate-next-year/

[Mr. Morden]

The NY Daily News says de Blasio is planning to announce next week:

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-de-blasio-2020-president-white-house-campaign-announcement-20190503-xsjuocb7zfhqxhh5vmoi3dup5q-story.html

Mayor de Blasio is expected to announce he’s running for president next week, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans.

The 2020 announcement could come as early as de Blasio’s birthday on Wednesday, when he’ll turn 58, said one source. The kickoff was initially expected this week but pushed back, according to another source.

De Blasio’s federal political action committee, Fairness PAC, recently polled Iowa voters. The PAC also bankrolled the mayor’s recent travel to key early voting primary states, including trips to Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Fairness PAC spokesman Mike Casca — who took an unpaid leave of absence from City Hall last month to work for the committee – said “no decision” has been made yet and wouldn’t explicitly deny that de Blasio was announcing a campaign next week.

“Very hard to announce something without a decision – nearly impossible, some might say,” Casca said in a text message on Friday.

[Mr. Morden]

Abrams hints at another run for governor:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/In-Houston-Stacey-Abrams-revs-up-Democrats-over-13818046.php

"I'm here to tell you a secret that makes Breitbart and Tucker Carlson go crazy: We won,” Abrams said. “I am not delusional. I know I am not the governor of Georgia - possibly yet."

Regarding de Blasio: It sounds like different members of his team are giving different accounts with regard to the accuracy of the NY Daily News report suggesting that he’s about to enter the race:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Mayor-Bill-de-Blasios-Team-Denies-Report-on-2020-Campaign-Announcement-509448351.html

After the Daily News reported Friday that de Blasio will enter the race on his 58th birthday next Wednesday, Mike Casca, the spokesman for his political action committee, Fairness PAC, said: "Very hard to announce something without a decision — nearly impossible, some might say,” Casca said in a statement provided to News 4.

Additional City Hall insiders tried to dismiss the report, the mayor hasn’t yet made up his mind.

One close advisor, however, told News 4 “he is doing this,” adding that the announcement is imminent.

NY1 says that de Blasio “still has not made a final decision”, however it looks like the pieces are being put in place for a run:

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2019/05/03/another-sign-bill-de-blasio-is-considering-presidential-run-2020-new-york-city-mayor

NY1 learned Friday that Mike Casca, the mayor's top political communications aide, is not only leaving the PAC but City Hall as well, and two new City Hall staff members are joining de Blasio's political operation. De Blasio's Fairness PAC has been orchestrating his out-of-town political trips to places like Iowa and New Hampshire these past few weeks.

Sources close to the mayor insist he has still not made a final decision about whether to join the 2020 Democratic field. But signs increasingly make it clear that the mayor is laying the groundwork for a run.

Also:

In a radio interview on WNYC this morning, de Blasio spoke about the factors that he is weighing as he tries to make up his mind about whether to run.

"I, in making any decision, have to weigh family, have to weigh what I think is in the interest of New York City and the ability to get things done for New York City," de Blasio said on The Brian Lehrer Show. "I also have to weigh how we have a different and better discussion in this country about our future. Because, right now, New York City is hurting because of a whole host of federal policies that are broken."

Politico has more on the de Blasio aides going to work on his PAC:

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2019/05/03/de-blasio-city-hall-staffers-decamp-for-pac-1006769

De Blasio’s deputy press secretary Olivia Lapeyrolerie and Deputy Director of Executive Operations Alexandra Kopel, are planning to use their vacation days to go on leave from City Hall to work for the PAC, a person close to the committee told POLITICO. They will join de Blasio’s intergovernmental affairs director Jon Paul Lupo, who is also using vacation days to work for the mayor’s potential campaign. Lapeyrolerie will handle the PAC’s press and communications, while Kopel will be handling operations, the person said.

And Mike Casca, who had been de Blasio’s communications director until last month when he left City Hall to work for de Blasio’s PAC, is leaving the de Blasio administration altogether.

Casca, who came to City Hall in 2017 after working on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, doesn’t have any current plans to work for another presidential campaign, a source close to the PAC said. Casca confirmed to POLITICO that he is not returning to City Hall.

[Mr. Morden]

de Blasio:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/why-bill-de-blasio-running-president/588778/

Multiple people close to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio gave up trying to talk him out of running for president earlier this year. Now he’s reportedly going to try to win Iowa and New Hampshire without most of his friends—or even people on his payroll—supporting him.

“Ugh,” said one former aide when asked about de Blasio actually going forward with his rumored 2020 campaign. “Lunacy,” said another. Others declined to comment for this story. One person who knows de Blasio well cited too much loyalty to speak anonymously about his prospects. No point in just being mean, the person said.

De Blasio is expected to announce a presidential run in the coming days with a skeletal campaign team staffed by junior aides on vacation from their jobs at city hall. He’s trying to do what Michael Bloomberg, Rudy Giuliani, John Lindsay, and every New York mayor since 1868 has failed to do: Get elected to a higher office.

[Mr. Morden]

de Blasio says no decision this week:

https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2019/05/07/bill-de-blasio-says-he-will-not-make-2020-presidential-run-decision-this-week

Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed Monday night that he will not come to a decision on a potential presidential run this week.

Speaking in his weekly "Mondays with the Mayor" interview on NY1, de Blasio denied reports that he would decide this week.

EDIT: Here's the exact quote:

https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/05/07/de-blasio-delays-2020-decision/

“Not the night and not the week,” he said Monday in an interview with NY1. “There was a story that assumed a specific thing that never was and we said, ‘you can’t have an announcement before there’s a decision.’”

[Mr. Morden]

More de Blasio:

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/is-bill-de-blasio-really-running-for-president-in-2020.html

According to people familiar with the mayor’s thinking, de Blasio remains committed to making a decision before the end of the month. The mayor is still in conversation with his family about the toll a run would take, but people who have spoken with him say he is leaning toward a campaign.

A de Blasio presidential campaign would be a lean operation, one centered mostly around the mayor and his immediate family. The brain trust that helped him in his come-from-behind victory when he ran for mayor in 2013 and guided his first couple of years in office has largely vanished, and as of late, the defections from his inner circle at City Hall have increased. Still, should the mayor run, his focus, people close to him said, would be on income inequality, the same issue that propelled de Blasio to a victory in his 2013 campaign for mayor.

Also, his latest public comment on the matter was to say that his slow decision timeline is unrelated to ethics questions:

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/De-Blasio-Undecided-On-Presidential-Run-Insists-Not-Related-Alleged-Scandals-509607071.html

The mayor insisted Tuesday afternoon that the reason he has not made a decision is not related to the renewed concerns regarding conflicts of interest and an alleged pay-to-play culture within his administration.

“All these things were looked at, and I actually think when a bunch of people look at something and come back with nothing, it makes the case pretty damn clear,” de Blasio said.

[Mr. Morden]

Howard Schultz seems to have paused his presidential exploration:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/howard-schultz-has-largely-stopped-his-2020-presidential-prep-work

In the past two weeks, Schultz has largely disappeared, leaving the impression that the presidential campaign he was flirting with won’t actually come to fruition.

His aides say that’s not the case. Bill Burton, a senior Schultz adviser, said that Schultz was still considering a bid and remained committed to the timeframe he had offered for a formal decision, which should come sometime “in the late spring or early summer.”

“It is a long time until election day 2020 and there are a lot of that inputs that Howard it is going to consider before he makes his decision,” Burton said.

But if Schultz is still gathering inputs before he makes his final determination, he is doing so privately. He has not made a public appearance since going to Arizona to talk about border security and the economy in late April. He was scheduled to visit Utah and to talk at the NationSwell Summit on Solutions in San Francisco and to tour and appear in conversation at the EarthX Energy Expo in Dallas. But those events were cancelled.

The story goes on to say that he’s been recovering from back surgery, and yet even the parts of presidential campaign exploration that doesn’t require public appearances seem to have stopped as well, with no new posts to Facebook or Instagram in over a week.

According to Facebook's ad archives, Schultz has not run an ad on the platform since April 23, when his account posted a spot that declared "It's Time To Un-Partisan.” Since Easter, Schultz has tweeted just twice. The first was to promote an op-ed he wrote on his trip to Arizona. That was on April 29. The second, and last, tweet came on Monday, when he tweeted a winky emoji at someone wondering if he was a character in Game of Thrones, after a cup of Starbucks was mistakenly included in a scene of the popular HBO show.

And it’s not just Schultz. Neither Steve Schmidt, his top adviser, nor Burton have tweeted since late January.

[Yang2020]

Oh goody just what we need:
https://twitter.com/AmiHorowitz/status/1126167011183042560?s=20

[MAINEiac4434]

Oh goody just what we need:
https://twitter.com/AmiHorowitz/status/1126167011183042560?s=20

Slightly worse chance of making the debate than Wayne Messam

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Oh goody just what we need:
https://twitter.com/AmiHorowitz/status/1126167011183042560?s=20

Ami "Big Brained Centrist, I swear I don't love Trump" Horowitz is the equivalent of Sam Seder's Libertarian campaign.

[Mr. Morden]

Abrams gives another hint suggesting that another run for governor may be more likely than a run for president:

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/stacey-abrams-next-steps-osborne-association/

Those who know de Blasio “say the mayor hasn’t made a final decision yet”:

https://news.yahoo.com/bill-de-blasio-2020-president-campaign-delusional-123227349.html

But he has some people in mind for top campaign jobs:

As de Blasio weighs a formal bid for the White House, multiple sources told Yahoo News his political operation is being led by Jon Paul Lupo, a former official in his administration who left City Hall to join Fairness PAC. Prior to working for de Blasio, Lupo was chief of staff to former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Before joining Markowitz’s team in 2011, Lupo worked on House and Senate campaigns for Democrats Tim Johnson and Jim Webb. Sources also told Yahoo News that Jim Crounse, a longtime de Blasio ally who worked on the 2013 race and specializes in direct mail campaigns, will have a role on the mayor’s team if he pulls the trigger and enters the presidential race.

[Mr. Morden]

Abrams reiterates that she hasn't ruled out running for president this year:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/09/stacey-abrams-2020-1315489

[NYSforKennedy2024]

For what it's worth, stevebullock.com just redirects to his Facebook page right now - possible sign of a redesign for a new campaign soon.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

Abrams reiterates that she hasn't ruled out running for president this year:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/09/stacey-abrams-2020-1315489

She, DeBlasio, and Bullock all need to just go away. There’s too many people in the field already and they’ll add nothing that isn’t already being offered.

[Mr. Morden]

Abrams reiterates that she hasn't ruled out running for president this year:

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/09/stacey-abrams-2020-1315489

More from that interview: Abrams says that what might prompt her to run for president is if other candidates aren't focusing enough on voter suppression:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/09/politics/stacey-abrams-2020/index.html

When asked what considerations were factoring into her decision, Abrams alluded to her current efforts fighting voter suppression, saying that she would likely join the 2020 field if she felt that other candidates were not addressing the issue, as well as turnout maximization, forcefully enough.
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"I'm looking at all that, and I want to make certain that the candidates who are moving forward are paying attention to that and have plans for that," she added. "If I think they don't, I'll probably jump in myself."

[Mr. Morden]

Bullock teases announcement:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/potential-2020-candidate-montana-gov-steve-bullock-teases/story?id=62979363

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat many suspect will soon jump into the crowded 2020 candidate field, teased a "big announcement" in a video on Twitter Saturday.
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"The only Democratic contender who won a Trump state will make a big announcement," according to the video, with large, white letters written over black-and-white photos of Bullock.

At one point in the video's mash-up of interviews the governor has done over the past year, NBC's Chuck Todd tells Bullock he's "this, like, weird creature from outer space." Later, the video features MSNBC's Willie Geist listing off the two-term governor's record: "A Democratic governor in that state who's pro-choice, you're for marriage equality, you've expanded Medicaid, you've expanded spending on education, you've protected the environment from corporate interests."

[Mr. Morden]

Abrams talked foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, which itself is a sign of potential continued interest in a national campaign:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/10/stacey-abrams-says-she-look-2020-presidential-election/1169705001/

"I'm looking at executive level opportunities, and that means that I am going to look at the 2020 presidential election," she said. 

Following gasps from the audience, Abrams laughed, and said, "Stop. Stop. I didn't announce anything. We have an amazing crop of candidates running, but as I have tried to articulate, this is early." 

She added: "I want to see what these candidates talk about. I think a number of them have been talking about what needs to be done...my goal is to think about whether I should be a part of this conversation."  

Abrams went through some of her other political options, leaving the door open to serving as a vice presidential candidate, or perhaps running for Georgia governor again. 

"If I decide not to run, and someone wins and decides they like me, I'm open to conversations after June [2020]. And there still is a state of Georgia, and it does need a governor, and I'm going to be looking at that too." 

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

Abrams talked foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, which itself is a sign of potential continued interest in a national campaign:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/10/stacey-abrams-says-she-look-2020-presidential-election/1169705001/

"I'm looking at executive level opportunities, and that means that I am going to look at the 2020 presidential election," she said. 

Following gasps from the audience, Abrams laughed, and said, "Stop. Stop. I didn't announce anything. We have an amazing crop of candidates running, but as I have tried to articulate, this is early." 

She added: "I want to see what these candidates talk about. I think a number of them have been talking about what needs to be done...my goal is to think about whether I should be a part of this conversation."  

Abrams went through some of her other political options, leaving the door open to serving as a vice presidential candidate, or perhaps running for Georgia governor again. 

"If I decide not to run, and someone wins and decides they like me, I'm open to conversations after June [2020]. And there still is a state of Georgia, and it does need a governor, and I'm going to be looking at that too." 

https://twitter.com/mikememoli/status/1126886677518143489
She should run!

[Mr. Morden]

This story doesn't definitively state when Bullock will make his candidacy official, though (in no surprise, given his Twitter post yesterday), it's expected "within the next few days":

https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2019/05/11/bullock-close-announcement-presidential-run/1175181001/

On Friday he posted a video of himself on Twitter participating in a law enforcement torch run in Montana City with a note from the governor stating “Feels like a good season to run.”

[Rookie Yinzer]

I had to look up that "we could all be speaking Russian" quotation to believe it. Unreal!

What’s the problem?