Here are the potential candidates still eyeing 2020 bids
With the 2020 campaign season already revving up, there are still a handful of potential candidates who have yet to announce their plans.
After an announcement this week from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), the number of declared candidates running for president in 2020 has reached 25, including 24 declared Democrats and one Republican, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. But that doesn’t mean there’s no room for a few more high-profile names to enter the race.
{mosads}Later entrants to the primary field often face heavy disadvantages against candidates with more established political operations, as many top national political operatives as well as state organizers have already made commitments to work with existing campaigns.
Candidates such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have well-established organizations with hundreds of volunteers already signed up to engage in voter outreach.
Later entrances have benefited other candidates, however, such as former Vice President Joe Biden who currently sits comfortably at the top of most polling of the Democratic primary.
Here are the top names thought to be still considering bids for the presidency in 2020:
Former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams (D):
After garnering national attention last year in a much-watched race for Georgia governor which ended in narrow defeat, Abrams has stoked rumors of her own future political ambitions.
{mossecondads}In multiple interviews since last November, Abrams has hinted that she has future political ambitions but also earlier this year announced she would not challenge Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who is up for reelection.
“I’m watching to see what happens. I think we’ve got a robust crop of candidates and I think they’re having important conversations,” Abrams told MSNBC in May.
In other interviews, Abrams has hinted that she will make a decision before the fall.
“I don’t think you actually have to make a decision about the White House before the fall,” she told MSNBC in April. “I understand that running for office means can you mass the resources, can you organize the people, and do you have a credible platform that can resonate, and I don’t believe there is an imperative to do so before September.”
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz:
Schultz told CBS’ “60 Minutes” earlier this year that he was considering a bid for president as an independent candidate. He suggested that he would mount his own bid for the presidency if he thought the Democratic party looked ready to nominate someone deemed too weak politically to defeat President Trump.
The suggestion garnered sharp criticism from party activists, who have accused the billionaire of threatening to derail the party’s candidate with a hopeless third-party bid for the White House.
In an interview with CNN’s Van Jones, however, Schultz promised that he would not “jeopardize” chances of removing Trump from office.
“I don’t think that answer can be answered in March of 2019. We’re 18 months away and a lot could happen,” he said in March. “I won’t do anything to jeopardize the critical importance of removing this president from the Oval Office.”
Mark Cuban
In an interview this month, the Dallas Mavericks CEO and “Shark Tank” star said that it would take a “perfect storm” for him to enter the 2020 race as a third-party candidate, while telling CNBC this week that he is open to pursuing an independent bid.
“There’s some things that could open the door, but I’m not projecting or predicting it right now,” he said.
“I still think there’s a real opportunity for somebody who is in the middle but has some charisma, has the ability to relate to both sides but is not a politician. The reality is people don’t trust politicians,” Cuban said.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R)
A popular governor of a deep-blue state, Maryland’s Hogan has been floated as a potential contender for the Republican 2020 primary since he easily won reelection in last November’s midterms.
Hogan has been open about his potential 2020 ambitions as well as his opposition to the president’s policies, and was one of a few Republicans who refused to endorse the president in 2016.
In April, he said he owed it to supporters to give “serious consideration” to mounting a bid for the GOP nomination against Trump.
“A lot of people have been approaching me, probably since the time of my inauguration in January … asked me to give this serious consideration and I think I owe it to those people to do just that,” Hogan said.
He indicated, however, that he would not mount a bid unless he was confident of a path to victory.
“I’m not going to launch some sort of suicide mission, I have a real day job that’s important to me, the people of Maryland, unless I thought there was a path to victory,” he added.
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R)
Kasich has remained in the national spotlight after battling Trump with little success in the 2016 primary, casting himself as a bipartisan governor of a purple state who offers an alternative to the president’s often controversial rhetoric and policy.
Kasich has stoked interest in his 2020 ambitions as recently as April, when the former governor told CNN that all of his options “remain on the table” for the future.
“I don’t wake up every day looking at polls or thinking about me and my political future. I just want to be a good voice,” Kasich told the network last month.
Meanwhile his multi-candidate political action committee, Kasich for America, called Kasich’s decision to join CNN as an analyst in January proof of his “growing ability to weigh-in on the issues that Americans care about.”