Way too early - Possible 2020 Democratic Candidates

That’s how it works, Adam. Presidential elections every four years.

The same one, with the same losing terrible arguments. Awesome. How did we get president trump again?

Hey, I get to vote for a Democrat in the primaries this time, so I will be picking… Not Bernie, and not Biden.

Anyone whose last name isn’t Clinton and actually gives a %!#* about the environment would be nice.

Sanders would be better than many other alternatives, but even as a huge fan of the guy I think he is too old to be an ideal candidate.

That’s why I’m excited that Merkley might be running, even if his chances are low. For those on Twitter I’d recommend following him.

I think the Dems should field some young military vet, like Jason Kander.

There are a lot more millenials who care about the environment than hold the military on a pedestal, and I believe millennials now exceed boomers as a cohort. It’s a risk though since so few of them vote (and despite backing Sanders, they didn’t turn out for him during the primaries.) That said from what I’ve seen of Kander he’d probably be a good candidate.

Tammy Duckworth

Possibly, but even the numbers of them that actually voted doubled, Boomers would still outnumber them nearly 2:1 iirc.
Plus it isn’t like you can’t find both anyway.

Which is why putting up a candidate who isn’t fucking a million years old would be a smart move.

If that happened (and assuming proper distribution given the electoral map), that alone would be probably be enough to swamp the GOP (not all boomers vote R.)

Totally onboard with that sentiment.

God give me a country where being ex military isn’t the secret trick to getting the Racist Contingent to take you seriously.

Like, I recognize the functional usefulness of service for Democratic candidates for gathering votes from the right, but what fucking difference does being ex military make for anything, except me being real worried about your ties to the MIC if you managed a high enough rank.

Kennedy/Harris 2020

Here’s one difference:

Here’s how I did my research

For my recently published article in Political Research Quarterly, I collected data on U.S. House of Representatives roll call votes about military operations from 2003 to 2012 in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I found that members of Congress with military experience showed two key differences from nonveterans on such votes:

  • Veterans were more willing to limit the number of troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, or to want to bring troops home from these wars.

  • Veterans were more likely to vote for increased congressional access to information about these military conflicts.

In other words, members of Congress with military service were more willing to oversee and restrain the White House’s military deployments.

This wasn’t because of partisanship or political affiliation. True, under both Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, veterans from the party opposite the president’s were more likely to want to rein in the administration. But, in general, members of Congress who were military veterans were simply more likely to cast their votes in favor of getting critical information about how military force was being used.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/11/10/fewer-veterans-serve-in-congress-every-term-that-makes-congress-less-likely-to-rein-in-the-presidents-use-of-force/?utm_term=.8bad22034f2b

While Kander seems to be very focused on his voting rights, “Let America Vote” organization, I can’t help but notice that of late he seems to be spending a lot of time helping Iowans and New Hampshirites sort out their voting laws. Looks like a longshot, but keep an eye out.

Sanders/Warren/Biden … please no. All are too old to weather an 8-year Presidency, and all three are also too established as “enemies of the red state”, meaning they would garner some of the same instant illogical backlash that Clinton did in 2016. In other words: “Not that Socialist\Feminazi\OBAMA!!!, anything but that!”

I like Cory Booker, but he may be almost too well-groomed for the candidacy at this point. My personal feeling is that the Democratic electorate is looking for someone kind of fresh and exciting, not someone who has been an heir apparent for awhile now. Booker also has heavy ties to the Clintons and Wall Street, which could make him an easy target for Conservative Media to pick apart.

If Democrats are looking to put up an experienced candidate who can challenge Trump in the Midwest and among the working class while also appealing to the populist vote, then Sherrod Brown from my own state of Ohio is a likely front runner. Bonus points, he doesn’t have strong ties to the Clintons. The biggest knock against him : he’s the definition of vanilla, a white middle-aged career politician. On the other hand, that could very well convince some fence-sitters tired of Trump’s antics to lean left in 2020.

Alternatively, Ohio governor John Kasich could finally do the right thing and switch parties…

Other thoughts:

A Biden/Harris ticket could be interesting, with the intent of Biden only staying for one term to get things rolling and trying to then put Harris in office on the strength of whatever turnaround they can accomplish in that first term.

Alec Baldwin - Stormy Daniels 2020 would be a fantastic way to troll Trump for a little while.

Speaking of actors, after watching two seasons of Designated Survivor I wish we could get a President like Kiefer Sutherland’s character on that show. Of course, just like in the show, we’d have to kill off most of Congress to actually accomplish anything…

Oh fuck no.

Switch parties, fine. But for the love of god he should not be the Dem candidate for anything outside of Ohio in such a hypothetical

That was an Ohio joke. Kasich has been persona non-grata among the GOP for awhile now…and he was always a centrist anyway, so…

But yeah, no way he’s ever a Democratic candidate for anything at this point.

Well, to give an idea how far right the Republican party has lurched, back in the '90s Kasich was at the time considered to be a pretty hard core right winger…

I like Sherrod Brown a lot, but he’s an indifferent (at best) speaker, and for whatever reason Democrats like their orators.