The Rock? Mark Zuckerberg? Democratic candidates taking shape for 2020

President Trump wants to seek a 2nd term, but who will oppose him?

Tuesday might have marked the end of the 2018 midterm elections, but it also marked the beginning of the 2020 presidential election cycle and, more specifically, which candidates are likeliest to run.

President Trump has already said he will seek a second term, so the coming months will focus mostly on which candidates from the Democratic Party will run.

Here's a glance at what to look out for in the coming months as the 2020 presidential election starts to form with candidates. 

Women candidates might be plentiful
Hillary Clinton was expected by many to become the first female president in 2016, and when that didn’t happen, many wondered when the presidential glass ceiling would ever be cracked, if Clinton couldn’t do it.

Initially though, there appears to be hope for a madame president in 2020 with the flux of female candidates that have expressed interest in running.

Among them are Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

According to an Axios poll, each of those women would beat Trump in the election.

Experience or youth?
There might be some concern that the most popular Democratic candidates will be too old, according to an article on thehill.com.

Warren will turn 70 in June, Joe Biden will turn 76 later this month and Bernie Sanders just turned 77 this past September. 

Will Hillary run?
Now 71, Clinton recently told recode.net “No” when asked if she would run for president in 2020. But then she seemed to backtrack.

“Well, I’d like to be president,” Clinton said in the interview.

After that, it fueled a lot of speculation that she was considering running, but then thehill.com came out with a separate article shortly after, saying she was not going to run.

Clinton is scheduled shortly to start a 13-city speaking tour with husband and former president Bill that will last until May. We’ll see if that also turns into a platform to gauge another run at the Oval Office. 

Are there any out-of-the box candidates?
If it were up to the public, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey would be great candidates. They, too, would beat Trump in the aforementioned Axios poll.

But while there might be some interest from both, it doesn’t sound like they will actually pull the trigger and announce their candidacy.

Winfrey told British Vogue in August that she wouldn’t be able to do it. “It’s not a clean business. It would kill me,” Winfrey told the magazine.

Obama told hollywoodreporter.com in April that she wouldn’t throw her hat in the ring.

There also has been speculation that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will run, according to an article on CNBC.com.

Of course, Kanye West originally said he was going to run in 2020, but has since announced that he won't run until 2024.

And finally, in a 2017 GQ article, Dwayne Johnson, more commonly referred as “The Rock,” said it was a “real possibility” that he would run for president sometime.

But in July, Johnson told Vanity Fair that he wouldn’t run in 2020, but could possibly consider it in the future. 
 


About the Author:

Keith is a member of Graham Media Group's Digital Content Team, which produces content for all the company's news websites.