STAFF REPORT
With under a year to go, everyone is starting to wonder what the 2020 presidential election has in store. Can Trump cling on to power? Can the Democrats win this time? Here is a look at things we know so far.
Mitt Romney was the Republican Party’s nominee for president in the 2012 election, and it has long been rumored he would run again in 2020. However, the junior senator from Utah announced in January that he would not be standing after all, and he is now weighing up his options of who to back. Another former presidential hopeful who lost before and is rumored to be running again is Hillary Clinton. Despite losing the 2016 election, Clinton has said she is “under enormous pressure” to challenge President Trump in next year’s race to the White House.
Other former candidates are coming back for another shot too. Although he finished runner-up in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, Bernie Sanders announced in February 2019 that he would run again. In March, the congressman from Vermont announced two key elements of his campaign. Firstly, he announced his campaign’s workers had unionized with the UFCW Local 400, which makes it the first-ever major presidential campaign that has a unionized workforce. Secondly, Sanders promised to offset greenhouse gas emissions while traveling by making contributions to renewable energy projects.
Although former vice-president Joe Biden has lost twice in his bid to become president, the 77-year-old announced his candidacy for the 2020 election in April 2019. Perhaps he has a better shot this time around, as most national opinion polls continually show him to be the Democrat front-runner.
Other than Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, the other two major contenders are Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. Warren leads the Democrat liberals, and she is an outspoken critic of Wall Street. In recent months, her campaign has surged. In some opinion polls, she is equaling Biden. Meanwhile, 37-year-old Buttigieg has emerged from obscurity to become one of the biggest stars of the Democrat party, and he is seen to represent a new generation.
Donald Trump is undoubtedly the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination. Indeed, his opponents have said his style of party leadership has made it almost impossible for anyone to challenge him. Nevertheless, Trump will face at least two challengers. The top two candidates appear to be Joe Walsh and Bill Weld.
Joe Walsh has been a fierce critic of Trump. The former congressman left politics back in 2012 and became a radio talk-show host in the Chicago area. He is now ready to throw himself back into the political arena.
Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld lost in the running for vice president in 2016. Like Walsh, Weld has persistently criticized Trump throughout the president’s term in office. When Weld launched his 2020 campaign, he said, “The American people are being ignored, and our nation is suffering.”
Donald Trump’s approval ratings have been in the low 40s for a long time, and national polls suggest he could be in real jeopardy in the 2020 election. However, according to surveys conducted by The New York Times Upshot and Siena College, Trump remains highly-competitive in those states that are most likely to determine his re-election. In the six closest states that turned Republican in the 2016 election, Trump trails Biden by an average of two points but still stays within the margin of error. Trump also leads Warren by two points, which is the same margin as his win against Hillary Clinton last time.
