It’s that time of the political cycle again! The most exciting (and draining) time of politics!
I’m, of course, referring to the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.
It’s honestly crazy how fast we’ve gotten to this point from 2016, you could even go back to the summer of 2015 when Donald Trump first announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States of America. Fast forward to 2019, and we’ve seen a load of insanity from pretty much everybody, but we’ve also seen a lot of good and productivity from President Trump. The economy is booming with record growth, jobs are flocking in by the millions, unemployment is at record-low numbers, income for Americans is at a post-recession high, optimism for Americans and American businesses is at historic highs, investment is flooding back into the U.S., and the stock market is at a record high, and on top of all of that, he’s cut taxes. And that’s just to name a few accomplishments — there’s a load of them.
Needless to say, it’s going to take a lot from the Democratic Party to defeat President Trump from winning re-election in 2020. And out of the current list of candidates, I have my concerns.
Here are some of the Democrats wanting to take on President Trump next year:
With all that being said, let’s go ahead and get to the odds. This is going to be fun.
We’ve already went over a good number of accomplishments that the president has made earlier in the blog, but let’s go over some more: Trump has made strides and gave power back to businesses with massive deregulation, the country’s worker development has made great improvements, domestic infrastructure has been given necessary and needed investments in the trillions, and though it’s not perfect, the health care system has gotten better under the president. Whether you like him or not, President Trump should win re-election in 2020 easily.
The biggest threat to beating President Trump’s bid for re-election is certainly Joe Biden, who finally made his run for the presidency official just recently after months of speculation. What makes Joe Biden such a threat is two things: 1. He’s got stature as a vice president, senator, he’s won multiple awards for his public service and he’s also an author. 2. He’s got financial backing from Wall Street executives. But here’s the problem, however, and what may hold Biden back from a 2020 win: He has a past riddled with sexual and racism accusations.
When you look at it strictly on paper, it looks like Bernie Sanders is in good shape of being a legitimate threat to defeat Trump. He’s raised $18.2 million in the first quarter of the 2020 campaign and carries a hefty base from his “political revolution” in 2016. But here’s the thing: The self-proclaimed ‘democratic socialist’ has gotten exposed as, well, pretty much a communist — he once had a communist flag hanging in his office, and him and his wife spent their honeymoon in the old Soviet Union. Oh, and he’s a hypocrite. Just look at his tax returns.
Shooting up the ranks of the Democratic presidential candidates, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg has not only impressed members of his own party, but he’s also made strides with Republicans. Buttigieg has done well raising funds, raking in more than $7 million in the first quarter. And here’s why he could shoot over both Biden and Sanders to take on President Trump: He doesn’t have a history of scandal, and has a solid history in both the U.S. military and in public service. He also graduated from Harvard. Watch out for this rising star, he’s real.
The left-leaning mainstream media has certainly made Beto O’Rourke their ‘media darling’ for the 2020 election, at least for now — there’s a lot of issues with O’Rourke. First off, it was exposed that the man put out a poem when he was younger asking a cow, and I quote, to ‘wax my ass’ and ‘scrub my balls’. If it couldn’t make things weird enough, it gets worse. O’Rourke also wrote a fantasy about running over and murdering children. And in my own personal view, he’s weak on policies and his charisma will fall apart in a general election. This star will fade.
Kamala Harris has made strides for her bid for the presidency of the United States, raising $12 million for her campaign in the first quarter. But here’s the biggest concern I have for Harris: Can she come out on top in a general election? Harris was born in Oakland and represented San Francisco as an Attorney General from 2004-2011 — meaning she’s from one of the most left-leaning areas of the country. Another problem: After already receiving an ‘F’ rating from the NRA, she claimed she would use an executive order for gun control. That could be problematic.
Andrew Yang might not have the starpower of a Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke, but Yang has certainly held his own on the campaign trail thus far building up a solid base for himself. This has mainly been due to his promises of a “Freedom Dividend,” which is UBI (Universal Basic Income) for every American between the ages of 18-64. That alone has picked him up a lot of steam. And here are some more pros about Yang: He was awarded two honors from the Obama administration, which helps with stature with Democrats.
Warren has done fine with campaign funding raising $6 million in the first quarter, but Warren comes along with a lot of baggage that will become problematic in a general: I’m mainly referring to her lying scandal to benefit her career. If you don’t remember, Warren has been busted lying about having Native American heritage (Cherokee) to be able to gain employment as a law professor through multiple prestigious universities, including Harvard. And here’s the kicker: Even after it was proven she only had 0.1-1.56% of DNA, she’s still riding with it.
Now that we’ve arrived to U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar on the list, we’ve started the list of long shots to take the presidency from Trump. In the years of 2009 and 2010, Klobuchar was actually referred to as a “rising star” by multiple notable Democrats, but that same stature just isn’t with her now in a bid for 2020. A long shot at +5000, don’t expect her to make a wave like an Elizabeth Warren can (and has done). Klobuchar has her bright spots though, including years of public service experience and she’s a ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee.
Cory Booker may be a long shot in the odds right now at +5000, but don’t be surprised to see Booker shoot up the chart as the campaign goes along. The main reason for this is charisma and passion, it’s certainly there. As a result, Booker has built himself a nice following and has even grabbed himself a celebrity girlfriend in Rosario Dawson. And not just that, but Booker has a sexy resume after his U.S. Senator position: Mayor of Newark, Member of the Newark Municipal Council and graduating from Stanford, Yale and Queen’s College, Oxford.
What is Mike Pence doing on the list? No, it isn’t because Pence has some grand scheme to overtake the president. Pence is on the list in the non-likely scenarios that Trump will be impeached, not run in 2020 or some other event that would change the landscape of the White House. And this is why we have the +6600 odds. Don’t expect Pence to be president in 2020, but if he was, he would deliver with a load of experience, including: 50th Governor of Indiana, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Chair of the House Republican Conference.
Kirsten Gillibrand started off her campaign on a good note, even raising a solid $3 million for her 2020 bid in the first quarter. But then things got a bit shaky for Gillibrand’s campaign, and not just the campaign, but her senate staff: Hypocrisy. Gillibrand has been one of the main leaders of the #MeToo campaign, but it would come out that one of her staffers would allege that Gillibrand’s office didn’t handle a sexual harassment complaint properly. As a result, a top aide for Gillibrand would also lose their job. Ever since then, the campaign has been on a decline.
Even though the relationship between Trump and Haley has been smooth ever since, there has been endless speculation that Haley could challenge Trump in the Republican primaries ever since their little ‘beef’ during the 2016 campaign. If Haley did decide to run for President, she would bring along a solid resume: US Ambassador to the UN, Governor of South Carolina and a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. Haley also has an impressive education at Clemson University. Still though, don’t expect those +10000 odds to improve.
Tulsi Gabbard might be a long shot right now in the odds at +10000, but don’t be surprised to see her make a wave as the campaign goes along. But can she survive with her own party is my question right now. A good portion of the Democratic base is known to be friendly to Islam, but not so much to Christians. Gabbard went out of her way to denounce the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States, and at the same time, defend Christians. Maybe her anti-Trump stance can help out with that. Only time will tell with this dark horse candidate.
Howard Schultz first arrived on the scene for 2020 when he first flirted with the idea of running for president as a Democrat, but after switching to an Independent, Schultz is now thinking about running with the ‘I’ beside his name. If that happens, this is a potential threat to the Democratic Party as they try to take the White House away from Trump. Not only would Schultz be able to take votes here and there, but he would also have the possibility to take a few percentage points away from the Democrats. In other words, Schultz could be a spoiler.
John Hickenlooper enters the race with a pretty successful track record, serving eight years as the Governor of Colorado. During his tenure as governor, he would also be the chairman of the National Governors Association from 2014-2015. Before these two roles, Hickenlooper would also serve another eight years in public service — this time as the mayor of the city of Denver. Not a bad history to have under your name when you’re running for President of the United States. The problem is, Hickenlooper has no stature, nor charisma. Distant long shot for sure.
Similar to John Hickenlooper, Governor John Kasich would also achieve two winning elections in a bid for the governor of his state. But the difference between the two is that Kasich has stature, and Hickenlooper doesn’t. If you don’t remember, Kasich ran for President of the U.S. back in 2016, and has fringe support as a result. Making comments in the media and knowing his distaste for President Trump, it’s been rumored that Kasich may run in the primaries against Trump. After signing on with CNN just recently, however, the odds should go up even higher.
Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro | ODDS: +10000
56th Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo | ODDS: +10000
40th Governor of California Gavin Newsom | ODDS: +10000
President Donald Trump (+100)
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (+800)
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