Author: Jessica Taylor / Source: NPR.org
After a flurry of people jumping into the presidential race, this past week a rare thing happened: A bunch of people jumped out.
But their decision to pass on the race could be an indication that an even bigger candidate is close to launching a campaign: former Vice President Joe Biden.Biden has made no secret that he’s serious about a run at the White House, after bowing out four years ago following the death of his son. Questions remain about how much the former Delaware senator, who would be almost 78 on Election Day, could appeal to a changing Democratic Party that’s awash in a desire for a younger, progressive candidate to energize its base.
But the potential candidates who passed this week would have offered voters some of the same attributes as Biden, and their decisions to sit out in 2020 may signal a clearing of the field for the elder statesman. The New York Times, citing officials familiar with the discussions, reported on Thursday that Biden’s chief strategist has recently called several potential candidates to tell them Biden is “95 percent committed to running.”
Around the time that story ran, a trickle of “no’s” began. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former Republican and independent, announced he wouldn’t run on Tuesday. Bloomberg is more of a centrist who has been known to reach across the aisle — as Biden often did during his decades in the Senate, in addition to retaining close friendships with Republicans. The Times also reported that Bloomberg’s advisers saw Biden as major hurdle, with many focus groups fawning over Biden’s “Uncle Joe” persona.
Former Attorney General Eric Holder is another member of the Obama administration who was testing the waters but ultimately decided against jumping in this week. Like Holder, Biden has made voting rights a priority in his post-administration days.
Perhaps Biden’s biggest potential ideological rival was Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who conducted a “dignity of work” tour through several early states before announcing on Thursday that he would not run. Brown would have appealed to the same white working-class, populist base as Biden — voters who proved to be Hillary Clinton’s Achilles heel in 2016.
As a proud native of Scranton, Pa., Biden has an edge in the very states that President Trump captured to win the presidency — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Steve Schale, a Florida Democratic strategist who was part of the “Draft Biden” initiative in 2016, acknowledged the potential crossover between Biden and Brown, but he argued that the former vice president’s appeal to that group stretches even further.
“I think there are probably elements of Brown’s…
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