US elections 2020

Analysis

Why It’s Fair Not to Treat Sanders Like the Democratic Frontrunner

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders takes part in a protest in Washington DC, November 17, 2016
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders takes part in a protest in Washington DC, November 17, 2016 (Lorie Shaull)

NBC’s political team asks if it is fair to treat Bernie Sanders as an insurgent rather than the legitimate frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary, given his high name recognition and the fact that he has raised more money than the other candidates.

I think so. Read more

News

Updates from the Democratic Primary

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders gives a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, January 9, 2016
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders gives a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, January 9, 2016 (Gage Skidmore)
  • Joe Biden — who still hasn’t officially declared his candidacy — is fending off accusations that he has been too affectionate toward women in the past.
  • Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana is having a moment in the sun. He is a progressive who can appeal to the center, but the last time a mayor was nominated for the presidency by a major party was in 1812.
  • Bernie Sanders is moving up in the polls (although, keep in mind, those are more about name recognition than support at this point) and raised the most money by far ($18 million) in the first three months of 2019. Read more
News

Updates from the Democratic Primary

Former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke gives a speech in Austin, November 4, 2018
Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke gives a speech in Austin, November 4, 2018 (Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)
  • Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke is running for president.
  • Ohio senator Sherrod Brown has decided against seeking the Democratic nomination.
  • Former vice president Joe Biden — who still hasn’t declared yet — is ahead in the polls, but that is more about name recognition than anything else at this point. Only geeks like us are paying attention. Most voters don’t start to think about the election until a few months before the Iowa caucuses.
  • Democrats have chosen Milwaukee, Wisconsin to host their 2020 convention. Read more
News

Updates from the Democratic Primary

American vice president Joe Biden gives a speech on board the USS Freedom in Singapore, July 27, 2013
American vice president Joe Biden gives a speech on board the USS Freedom in Singapore, July 27, 2013 (USN/Karolina A. Oseguera)
  • Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper and incumbent Washington governor Jay Inslee are running. The former is relatively moderate, the latter more left-wing and focused on climate change.
  • Joe Biden has hired the head of the influential Latino Victory Fund in what Politico describes as “the latest sign he’s running.”
  • Kamala Harris is elbowing out rivals as she courts wealthy Democratic donors in California.
  • Cory Booker, Harris and Amy Klobuchar are ahead in the “endorsement primary” as measured by FiveThirtyEight.
  • Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton have decided against seeking the nomination. The former warned Democrats not to allow the primary process to “drag the party to an extreme” that could help reelect Donald Trump. Read more
News

Updates from the Democratic Primary

Vermont senator Bernie Sanders makes a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, July 18, 2015
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders makes a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, July 18, 2015 (Gage Skidmore)
  • Bernie Sanders has made it official and is running for the Democratic nomination a second time.
  • New Jersey governor Phil Murphy has endorsed Cory Booker, the junior senator from his state.
  • Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, has endorsed his state’s Amy Klobuchar.
  • Kamala Harris has won the endorsement of Governor Gavin Newsom and a slew of California state legislators.
  • Klobuchar is not endorsing Medicare-for-all and free college education, positioning herself as a “straight-talking moderate“. Read more
News

Updates from the Democratic Primary

Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announces her presidential campaign in Minneapolis, February 11
Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announces her presidential campaign in Minneapolis, February 11 (Lorie Shaull)
  • Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota has announced a presidential bid. The three-term senator from a state Hillary Clinton nearly lost in 2016 could help win back the sort of blue-collar Midwestern voters who left the Democratic Party for Donald Trump. Although Klobuchar’s voting record is more left-wing than her image, she has notably not (yet) endorsed universal health care.
  • Elizabeth Warren has officially launched her presidential campaign with a combative speech focused on making life better for the American working class.
  • The Democratic political community is broadly and deeply pessimistic about Joe Biden‘s potential candidacy, McClatchy reports. Read more
News

Updates from the Democratic Primary

Former American secretary of state Hillary Clinton speaks with New Jersey senator Cory Booker in Newark, June 1, 2016
Former American secretary of state Hillary Clinton speaks with New Jersey senator Cory Booker in Newark, June 1, 2016 (Hillary for America/Barbara Kinney)
  • New Jersey senator Cory Booker, formerly a mayor of Newark, is officially running.
  • Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren have thrown their support behind Bernie Sanders’ proposal to replace private health insurance in the United States with Medicare-for-all.
  • Harris is hiring veterans of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign.
  • Big Democratic donors aren’t writing cheques yet. Read more