Dems are feeling the Bern.
Via The Hill:
Democrats predict that as many as 30 candidates will compete in their party’s presidential primary in 2020.
And while it’s still too early to say who might come out on top, buzz is building around some potential candidates, even as other hopefuls fade to the background.
A year after a devastating 2016 defeat, Democrats are craving new faces with fresh ideas. Yet many of their leading contenders for the White House in 2020 are politicians who have been around for decades.
There’s also no clear standout in the potential field.
“You have a bunch of Celine Dions but there’s no Beatles,” said Phil Singer, a Democratic strategist who served as press secretary on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential run.
The fortunes of potential candidates can change quickly. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), for example, was regarded just a few weeks ago as a potential dark horse candidate in 2020, but that changed instantly when sexual misconduct charges surfaced against him.
The Hill interviewed nearly a dozen prominent Democrats to find out who has captured the party’s attention in recent months and who has fallen out of favor.
Here’s how they see the field stacking up right now.
1. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Advisers to the senator are telegraphing that Sanders is eying a 2020 run — and his network is already ready to go, with supporters convinced that he was the candidate who would have beaten President Trump in 2016.
“His people have never gone away,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. “And he has a loyal core following out there that will be with him come hell or high water.”
Also working in Sanders’s favor, Bannon said, is the leftward shift of the Democratic Party.
“The Sanders wing is becoming the dominant wing of the party,” he said.
Still, strategists note that Sanders would be 79 in 2020, which could work against him at a time when Democrats are hungry for change.
2. Joe Biden
The former vice president’s book tour has kept him in the spotlight at a time when Democrats are nostalgic for the Obama years.
While playing it coy about his 2020 plans, Biden has consistently been talking about Democratic values and how the party can win back frustrated blue-collar workers who voted for Trump.
“He’s the perfect antidote to Trump,” said former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). “And he has broad appeal in areas of the country we have to win.”
Added Singer: “He probably has the best voice at this stage of the game.”
With sexual harassment back in the headlines however, Biden has faced new criticism recently for his treatment of Anita Hill, an attorney who accused her then-boss Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during hearings in 1991.
Hill told the Washington Post this week that Biden has yet to take “ownership” for how she was treated during the hearings; at the time, Biden was the Senate Judiciary chairman. Biden apologized recently, but Hill said it wasn’t enough.
If he chooses to run, Biden will also have to contend with his age. He’ll be 77 in 2020.