Whether you consider the beginning of the U.S. presidential campaign the date of the first campaign launch, the Iowa caucuses or the first candidates’ debate, it is a staggeringly long process.
The Democratic field is shaping up to be comparable in size to the 17 candidates who vied for the Republican nomination in 2016, which resulted in Donald Trump’s unprecedented campaign win. With such a potentially large group, a number of themes and divisions are likely to emerge among Democratic hopefuls: centrist versus left-leaning, D.C. insiders versus outsiders, youth versus experience.
Some lesser-known politicians have signalled their (improbable) bids for president, including former U.S. congressman John Delaney from Maryland, self-help author Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur and activist.
That field won’t include Hillary Clinton.
Clinton — who received more votes in the 2016 presidential election than any candidate in history not named Barack Obama — ruled out another campaign during an interview posted March 4, 2019, by New York TV station News12 .
“I’m going to keep on working, and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” she said. “What’s at stake in our country, the kind of things that are happening right now are deeply troubling to me.”
She said she has spoken with several of the candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, and has told them, “Don’t take anything for granted, even though we have a long list of real problems and broken promises” from the Trump administration.
Here’s some background on the potential major contenders:
RUNNING
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is shown on Feb. 23 at a fundraiser in Ames, Iowa. Just over a week later, Hickenlooper announced his candidacy. (Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press)
On March 4, Hickenlooper launched into the wild ride of a presidential campaign. (The name of his 2020-focused political action committee, GiddyUp, gives a sense of his enthusiasm.) Hickenlooper hopes to repeat the success of his two-term governorship in Colorado, by no means a leftist bastion. During his tenure, he didn’t shy away from difficult decisions, legalizing marijuana sales and issuing a moratorium on executions — he called the state’s death penalty process inconsistent and flawed. Hickenlooper was a brewer and a geologist at different points prior to entering politics. He also has ties to the East, having grown up in Pennsylvania, followed by college in Connecticut.
Pub trivia: Previously the mayor of Denver, Hickenlooper is looking to become the first person in nearly a century (since Calvin Coolidge) to pull off the trifecta of mayor-governor-president. He’s already been a Jeopardy! answer – in Dutch, his surname translates as “hedge hopper.”
(Elaine Thompson/Canadian Press/AP)
Inslee has been governor of Washington since 2013, but also has D.C. experience, with multiple terms as a congressman representing the Evergreen State in the 1990s. He raised his national profile during a White House meeting on school shootings last year when he told Trump directly, “we need a little less tweeting here and a little more listening” to teachers.
He announced his candidacy in a video on March 1, declaring “I am the only candidate who will make defeating climate change our nation’s No. 1 priority.”
Pub trivia: There has never been a president from the state of Washington.
(Alex Brandon/Associated Press)
The self-described democratic socialist won over 20 states and territories during the 2016 Democratic primaries, which is why he can’t be overlooked. As well, the second contest is in New Hampshire, adjacent to Sanders’ home state of Vermont, where he won by 22 percentage points over Hillary Clinton. But it’s questionable whether Sanders would do as well in a crowded field as in a race when he was the only serious threat — sorry, Martin O’Malley — to a very establishment candidate in Clinton. As well, Sanders turns 78 in 2019, which would make him 87 and change by the end of a two-term presidency.
Pub trivia: In addition to his Jewish heritage, a Sanders presidency would be noteworthy because he is an independent (although he caucuses with the Democrats).
(Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)
If Klobuchar were an athlete, sportswriters would trot out “she just wins” clichés to explain why she’s a strong contender. The Minnesotan just came off the most competitive of her four U.S. Senate elections in November — and her margin of victory was 24 percentage points.
A lawyer, she also won two elections for district attorney in her county and bet on the right pony in the last two contested Democratic presidential primaries — backing Obama in 2008 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. She has co-sponsored bills with Republicans in the Senate and will be perceived as one of the centrist candidates in the Democratic race.
Her composure was on display during last year’s contentious Supreme Court nomination hearings, when Brett Kavanaugh apologized for lashing out at her when she asked if he had a drinking problem in the past.
Klobuchar, who announced her bid on Feb. 10, would look to avoid the same fate of Minnesotans in modern presidential elections: Hubert Humphrey (1968) lost closely, Walter Mondale (1984) did not.
Pub trivia: If nominated or elected, she would overtake Melania Trump and others as the most well-known Slovenian-American. She was also a published author by 22, writing a book, Uncovering the Dome, about the controversial process that saw taxpayers foot much of the bill for the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome for the Vikings and Twins in the 1980s.
(Brian Snyder/Reuters)
From appearances as a personal finance expert on Dr. Phil beginning in 2003 to her subsequent U.S. Senate career, Warren’s emphasis on pocketbook issues and consumer protections could resonate with voters tired of so-called identity politics. Warren and Trump have traded verbal jabs – she has attacked him for being a “wannabe tyrant” overseeing a corrupt administration, while he’s mocked her claims to Indigenous ancestry. Warren’s profile as a northeastern liberal might, on the surface, seem a challenge in winning over voters in the U.S. heartland, but Warren could play up the fact she was raised in a churchgoing Methodist family in Oklahoma.
Warren officially launched her campaign in the working-class city of Lawrence, Mass., on Feb. 9.
Pub trivia: Warren, married to her current husband (Bruce Mann) since 1980, retains the surname of a previous spouse.
(Alex Brandon/Associated Press)
The New Jersey senator is a Rhodes scholar and a Yale Law grad. Booker has been garnering national attention since his efforts as mayor of Newark (2006-13) to bring back economic opportunity and reduce violent crime. Since reaching the U.S. Senate in 2013, Booker has served on a range of committees, and courted controversy last year by releasing emails that Republicans wanted to remain confidential during the bitter partisan battle over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
On Feb. 1, he announced his intention to run in a video released on his website: “I believe that we can build a country where no one is forgotten, no one is left behind,” he said.
Pub trivia: Likely would be the first vegan president, and could be the first in a century to arrive at the White House without a spouse.
(City of South Bend, Indiana/Handout/Reuters)
Buttigieg (pronounced BOO-ti-jij), 37, is the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and an Afghan veteran. The Harvard grad and Rhodes Scholar announced Jan. 23 that he has launched an exploratory committee in a video he posted to Twitter. The relative unknown says he represents a new generation of leadership with fresh approaches to the country’s problems.
“When it comes to experience right now, nothing could be more relevant than leading one of America’s turnaround cities,” he told reporters.
He did manage to get on the radar of at least one prominent politician. Former president Barack Obama mentioned Buttigieg in an interview shortly before leaving the White House as a young Democrat with a bright future.
Pub trivia: If he wins the party’s nomination, he would become the first openly gay nominee of a major U.S. political party.
(J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)
Harris, who in 2017 became the second black woman to serve in the U.S Senate, declared her candidacy for president on ABC’s Good Morning America and in a video posted to Twitter on Jan. 21. It appears the 54-year-old is attempting an Obama-like play for the presidency, as she is only midway through her first term as a U.S. senator. If anything, she has more impressive bona fides than Obama did when he ran for the top job.
Harris was California’s attorney general, worked as San Francisco’s district attorney and has been on more prestigious Senate committees (Intelligence, Justice, Homeland Security) than Obama was during his Senate career.
Pub trivia: Harris spent part of her teens in Montreal, attending Westmount High, while her mother worked at McGill University.
(Mary Altaffer/Associated Press)
Gillibrand revealed on Jan. 15 that she was launching an exploratory committee for a White House run. “It’s an important first step and it’s one I am taking because I am going to run,” she said in an interview with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Gillibrand, 52, has a high profile owing to a decade of experience on Capitol Hill. She has been a vocal advocate for women’s rights and has taken the #MeToo mantle as much as any D.C. politician. Gillibrand pushed for the removal of influential Democratic senator Al Franken before a Senate ethics committee probe addressed sexual misconduct allegations against him. This made her unpopular among some Democrats. Gillibrand also said Bill Clinton should have resigned as president over his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky — a fascinating fact given that Hillary Clinton wrote the foreword to Gillibrand’s 2014 book, Off the Sidelines: Speak Up, Be Fearless, and Change Your World.
Pub trivia: If elected to the highest office, Gillibrand would be the second straight president with a spouse born outside of the U.S. (her husband was born and raised in Britain).
Julian Castro, former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary and San Antonio Mayor, announced his candidacy for president in 2020 in San Antonio, on Jan. 12. (Edward A. Ornelas/Getty Images)
Former Obama administration housing chief Julian Castro announced his run for the presidency on Jan. 12. Despite being just 44, he possesses nearly two decades of political experience — as San Antonio councillor and then mayor, and then as Barack Obama’s housing secretary. The grandson of Mexican immigrants, Castro is vying to become the first Latino-American president.
Castro called for new moral leadership in the White House, and took aim at the administration’s policy last year of detaining some migrant children separately from their parents, just days after Trump contemplated using emergency powers to deal with the number of applicants seeking asylum at the southern U.S. border.
“There is no way in hell that caging babies is a smart or a right or good way to do it,” said Castro. “We say no to building a wall and say yes to building community.”
Pub trivia: Are you ready for a president with an identical twin? Castro’s brother Joaquin is a U.S. congressman representing Texas’s 20th district — and the spitting image of his sibling.
Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announced her candidacy on Jan. 12. (Laura Ruminski/West Hawaii Today via AP)
Gabbard, 37, told CNN in an interview that aired on Jan. 12 that she has decided to run for president, and she made it official on Jan. 24.
On Election Night 2012, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow hailed incoming Hawaii congresswoman Gabbard as being “on the fast track to being very famous some day.” She was a rare commodity for Democrats in the House, a female military veteran who served in Iraq (2004-2006). Gabbard can’t be accused of trying to win popularity contests within her party. She endorsed Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign, criticized America’s “endless wars” overseas and controversially met with Bashar al-Assad while on a Middle East trip in early 2017, not advising Democratic leaders beforehand.
While her salty put-down of the Trump administration for its response to the killing of U.S. citizen Jamal Khashoggi was widely noted, previous comments Gabbard has made on same-sex marriage rights and Islam have invited criticism from progressive party members.
Pub trivia: Gabbard would be the youngest president at inauguration, the first modern president not born in the 50 states — having been born in the U.S. territory American Samoa — and the first Hindu-practising president.
UNDECIDED
Joe Biden
(Jeff Roberson/Associated Press)
Biden has a compelling story of overcoming personal loss, and brings tons of experience to bear — he was a senator for more than three decades and was a two-term vice-president under Barack Obama. Biden lives in Delaware, but was raised in Scranton, Penn., and his working-class charm could help swing much-needed Pennsylvania back to the Democratic column. On the other hand, he has been prone to verbal gaffes, and ran two unsuccessful presidential campaigns (1988, 2008).
Pub trivia: Biden would be days shy of 76 on election day. If he won, it would make him by far the oldest president to take office.
Beto O’Rourke
(Mike Segar/Reuters)
The former congressman took many by surprise last year with a charismatic, competitive campaign for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas (which he lost to Ted Cruz). Many Democrats have been high on O’Rourke’s presidential chances, pointing to his ability to attract donors large and small, and the fact that he did so well in a state that leans further right than the rest of the country. As a former El Paso city councillor, O’Rourke understands the centrality of issues regarding immigration and the southern border in national politics.
Pub trivia: His actual name is Robert O’Rourke, and he was the bass player in a little-known punk band called Foss.
Sherrod Brown
(John Minchillo/Associated Press)
Like Biden, Brown possesses an everyman appeal that could help deliver a much-needed state to Democrats in the electoral calculus in 2020, with an emphasis on pocketbook issues such as Obamacare, benefits for seniors and student loans. Brown has been a fixture in Ohio politics at the state and national levels since the mid-1970s. Brown is not flashy, and admits it was never his dream to run for president, which could be appealing after the ambitious Obama and the bombastic Trump.
Pub trivia: Brown drew attention to the high price of prescription drugs in the U.S. in the early 2000s by organizing trips for Ohio seniors to go to Ontario so they could get their medications at a lower cost.
Definitely not running
(Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press)
- Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who toyed with running and spent millions helping Democrats get elected last year.
- Former secretary of state, Democratic nominee for president in 2016 Hillary Clinton.
- Former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder.
- Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
- Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.
- Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Stormy Daniels.
- Tom Steyer, billionaire businessman who’s funded a bid to have Trump impeached.
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