The Hill’s Reid Wilson: Senators now have ‘national spotlight’ to boost presidential prospects

The Hill campaign reporter Reid Wilson said on Tuesday that senators are using the national media to promote their presidential ambitions. 

“It used to be that a party would nominate a governor, and that governor would do well because he or she was outside of Washington and could talk about fomenting change in D.C.,” Wilson told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”

“Now it’s the U.S. senators who have that national spotlight, and get the media attention on Fox News, on MSNBC, on Hill.TV, and therefore get the attention of the activist class that is so coveted at this early point in that cycle,” he continued. 

Wilson’s comments come as speculation swirls around whether various high-profile senators, including Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), will launch 2018 presidential bids. 

Harris and Booker, who both sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, found themselves in the national spotlight on Tuesday during the confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

The two senators joined other Democrats on the committee in trying to delay Kavanaugh’s confirmation to give them time to examine thousands of recently released documents from his work under former President George W. Bush.

— Julia Manchester