2020 Elections

The Associated Press reports: California’s state Senate voted 27-10 on Thursday to require anyone appearing on the state’s presidential primary ballot to publicly release five years’ worth of income tax returns. The proposal is in response to Trump, who bucked 40 years of tradition by refusing to release his tax returns prior to his election in 2016. California’s presidential primary …

Helena’s NBC News affiliate reports: Montana Gov. Steve Bullock will announce his bid for the presidency in two weeks, MTN News has learned — adding to the 20 Democrats already running for the 2020 nomination to challenge President Trump. Bullock, a two-term governor who can’t run for re-election in 2020 because of term limits, isn’t talking publicly yet about his …

The New York Times reports: Michael Bennet, the moderate, studious Democratic senator from Colorado known for his work on education and immigration reform, announced his candidacy for president on Thursday. He joins a field so crowded with candidates that it now includes six of his colleagues in the Senate and his former boss, John Hickenlooper, a past governor of Colorado. …

An excerpt from Time‘s cover story: To some Americans, Buttigieg may just be the man to vanquish America’s demons. In a field of more than 20 ­candidates­—including six Senators, four Congressmen, two governors and a former Vice ­President—Buttigieg (pronounced Boot-edge-edge) has vaulted from near total obscurity toward the front of the Democratic pack, running ahead of or even with more …

Mediaite reports: Joe Biden got quite a kick out of President Donald Trump‘s retweet spree Wednesday morning. Speaking at an event in Iowa City, Biden yukked it up in response to the President retweeting more than 60 posts attacking the former Vice President in the span of an hour. “I understand the President’s been tweeting a lot about me this …

Politico reports: Kirsten Gillibrand jumped into the Democratic presidential policy race Wednesday with a “clean elections” plan that would provide a voter-driven public option for campaign financing. The New York Democrat’s first policy rollout aims to reduce the influence of special-interest money in politics, an issue that’s grown in significance for Democratic primary voters — and one that Gillibrand argues …

Fox News reports: According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, bills have been introduced in 17 states that would keep President Trump off their election ballots in 2020 unless he releases his tax returns to the public. The measures have passed the Senate in four states, including California, Hawaii, Illinois and Washington state. The Constitution has spoken to that,” …

Politico reports: Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg on Tuesday released his tax returns, following similar moves by his rivals as they seek to distinguish themselves from President Trump, who has come under scrutiny for his personal finances. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a rising star in the crowded Democratic primary field, released 10 years of tax returns …

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports: Stacey Abrams said Tuesday that she won’t run for the U.S. Senate in 2020 but left open the possibility she could launch a presidential campaign. The decision not to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue follows months of speculation about the Democrat’s next political step after her narrow loss in last year’s race for governor. …

CBS News reports: Former President Barack Obama lent his voice to a new Joe Biden campaign video that touts his former vice president as being “resilient, loyal, and a patriot.” The new ad, titled “America: Anything Is Possible,” features footage of the former president delivering a speech during Biden’s Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House back in …

CNN reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement of a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination earned him an 11-point polling bounce, leaving him head and shoulders above the rest of the Democratic candidates. A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS after Biden’s announcement on Thursday shows 39% of voters who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents saying he is their …

The New York Daily News reports: Kimberly Guilfoyle — a former Fox News host and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. — has joined President Trump’s reelection campaign as a senior adviser, the campaign said on Monday. Guilfoyle, who had been serving as the vice chairwoman of a pro-Trump super PAC, was selected for the position as a crowded field of …

The Hill reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) trolled Chase Bank after the bank’s attempt at sharing personal finance advice on Twitter was met with backlash. Chase’s original tweet, which has since been deleted, was criticized for appearing to mock people for spending money on things like coffee, food and taxis. In response, Warren sent a tweet mocking Chase in part …

ABC News reports: “I believed her from the very beginning, but I was chairman. She did not get a fair hearing. She did not get treated well. That’s my responsibility,” Biden told “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts during an interview on Monday which will fully air on Tuesday. “As the committee chairman, I take responsibility that she did not …

CBS News reports: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich thinks California Sen. Kamala Harris is “most likely” to be nominated to the Democrats pick to challenge President Trump in the 2020 presidential race. Gingrich, speaking to CBSN on Monday, said Harris’ base of California and general likability make her a serious contender for the nomination. “She’s very articulate and I think …

PBS NewsHour reports: By picking Pennsylvania for his first campaign speech of the presidential race, Joe Biden is signaling he hopes to own what may be the 2020 election’s toughest battleground. Planting a flag in Pennsylvania makes sense for the longtime former senator from Delaware: He was born in Pennsylvania, has numerous ties to it and is using his deep …

Hugh Hewitt writes for the Washington Post: The 2020 election isn’t going to be close. This will come as news to #Resistance liberals, who are certain Trump will lose, because they dislike him so much. They still haven’t figured out that 40 percent of the country love him and at least another 10 percent are very much committed to considering …

Reuters reports: U.S. congressman Seth Moulton, one of 20 Democrats running for president, criticized rivals Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on Friday, saying they were so liberal they risked handing President Donald Trump a second White House term. Moulton is a long-shot candidate at this stage. But his comments reflect a growing conflict between the Democratic Party’s moderate and progressive …

“I’m not there yet on impeachment. I may get there, he may get me there. But here’s the awful dilemma that we face: if we don’t impeach him, that sends a message that this kind of conduct, this obstruction of justice, this kind of willing use of the help of a foreign adversary, all the lies and cover up, that …

Axios reports: South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg announced in an email on Friday that the campaign will no longer accept contributions from federal lobbyists, and plans to return $30,250 to those who have already donated. The decision comes one day after former Vice President Joe Biden announced his presidential candidacy at the home of a Comcast executive, per Politico. Buttigieg …