2020 Elections

Mediaite reports: Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean thinks all the 2020 Democratic candidates are qualified for the presidency, except for Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. “I’m really not gonna take sides in this,” said Dean on CNN this morning “There are no candidates, with one exception, that I really don’t think should be president.” The Hill reports: “And who’s that exception?” …

NPR reports: More than half of registered voters say they have made their minds up against supporting President Trump in 2020, according to a new poll. In a PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist Institute survey released Thursday, 57 percent of registered voters said that they would definitely not support Trump in 2020, and would instead “vote against” the president by supporting one of …

The New York Times reports: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, an outspoken advocate for women’s causes and electing more women to office, is entering the 2020 race for the White House herself, becoming the latest candidate to join what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary to take on President Trump. In an appearance Tuesday on the “Late Show With Stephen …

CNN reports: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in the early 2000s touted working for her father’s anti-gay organization, which mobilized to pass a measure against same-sex marriage in Hawaii and promoted controversial conversion therapy. Although Gabbard’s positions on LGBT rights have shifted dramatically in more recent years (she signed a 2013 amicus brief supporting Edith Windsor’s challenge to the Defense of Marriage …

CBS News reports: Julián Castro, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary under former President Obama, announced Saturday he is running for president in 2020. “I’m running for president because it’s time for new leadership, it’s time for new energy, it’s time for new commitment to make sure the opportunities that I had are available to every American,” Castro …

Reuters reports: Texas Democrat Julian Castro, a former San Antonio mayor who went on to be the top U.S. housing official, was expected to formally announce his White House bid on Saturday, the first Hispanic in what looks to be a crowded field of candidates vying to challenge President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election. Castro, 44, the grandson …

Reuters reports: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said Friday she will run for president in 2020. “I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” the Hawaii Democrat told CNN’s Van Jones during an interview slated to air at 7 p.m. Saturday on CNN’s “The Van Jones Show.” Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, currently serves …

The Texas Tribune reports: Oprah Winfrey plans to interview Beto O’Rourke next month in New York City, an event sure to ratchet up national attention surrounding the former Democratic congressman from El Paso and potential 2020 presidential candidate. Oprah is set to sit down with O’Rourke on Feb. 5 in Times Square as part of a series of conversations with …

CBS News reports: Sen. Kamala Harris has decided to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president, sources close to her told KCBS Radio. She’ll announce her candidacy on  Martin Luther King Day, probably at a campaign rally in Oakland, the sources said. Harris, 54, has been making the rounds of television talk shows and appearing at several events this week …

The New York Times reports: Tom Steyer, the California billionaire who has crusaded for President Trump’s impeachment, said on Wednesday that he would not join the pack of Democrats running for president in 2020 and would instead redouble his efforts to topple Mr. Trump before the election. Mr. Steyer’s decision came as a surprise even to some of his political …

Politico reports: Beto O’Rourke is leaning toward running for president, according to four people who have spoken with him or his advisers in recent days. But for a presidential contender, his radio silence is becoming increasingly awkward. In Iowa and New Hampshire — where Democrats are accustomed to being courted aggressively by presidential contenders — calls from Democratic Party organizers …

The Hill reports: Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said that she believes the U.S. is “absolutely” ready for a woman of color as president. Harris made the remarks during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” to promote her new memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.” “Is this country, after what [President] Trump has unleashed and what we …

The Houston Chronicle reports: Patience has apparently already run out for some Democrats waiting on Beto O’Rourke to announce whether he’ll run for president. A group of Democrats led by a key South Carolina Democrat and a TV actress have created a “Draft Beto” campaign with a goal of raising $1 million and setting up a grassroots network to help …

From the editorial board of the Montpelier Times: Bernie Sanders should not run for president. In fact, we beg him not to. That is an unfavorable opinion, especially among most Vermonters and progressives who support the platform that has come to define him. But at this point, there are more things about another Sanders run at the White House that …

From the right wing Daily Caller: American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp will be running for Senate in Kansas in 2020, two sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Caller News Foundation on Friday. Schlapp will likely run for Republican Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts’s seat. Roberts announced his retirement at a press conference in Kansas on Friday afternoon. Roberts, …

Martin O’Malley writes for the Des Moines Register: I will not be running for president in 2020, but I hope Beto O’Rourke does. And this is why. In 2016, my long-shot presidential candidacy found its flame extinguished between a rock and an angry place in my own party. America wasn’t in the mood for new leadership. We were in a …

The Hill reports: Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Thursday that he will seek a fifth term in the Senate. Asked on CNN’s “New Day” whether he would run for reelection in 2020, Durbin replied that he would, adding that his response shouldn’t be taken “as a formal announcement.” “What I’ve said is, I’m raising money and I’m …

“I think it sounds like a lot of people are running. The main issue for the Democrats is not going to be the articulation of the negative, it is going to be the articulation of the positive, and credibility. Of all the names that are out there, I think Joe Biden has the best case because he brings the most …

Mike Allen reports at Axios: A wave of announcements, like the one Sen. Elizabeth Warren made on New Year’s Eve morning, is planned for the next few weeks. The hopefuls need to raise money, and need an organization for housing the aides they want to hire to take them off the hot 2020 job market. Look for announcements this month …

The Washington Post reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren jumped into the 2020 presidential campaign Monday, offering a message of economic populism as she became the best-known Democratic candidate yet to enter what is expected to be a crowded race. Warren’s announcement that she was establishing an exploratory committee — the legal precursor to a run — came as other candidates, including …