The 59th presidential election will take place on November 3, 2020. 529 days from today.
53% of Americans would like to amend the constitution so that in the future presidential elections are determined by whomever gets a majority of the national vote. 43% of Americans would like to continue using the Electoral College. [NBC/WSJ 5/1/19]
As of April 2019, 14 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation supporting the manner in which we select the President. These 14 states and the District represent 189 electoral votes of the 270 that are necessary to make this happen.
As of May 19, 2019, there are 24 people who have announced that they are running for the Democratic nomination and are included in most widely published lists. Two people have announced they are running for the Republican nomination.
(Actually, 716 people have filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for President; 244 Democratic candidates, 91 Republican candidates, 26 Libertarian candidates and 14 Green candidates.)
Included in the broadly reported list of 24 Democratic candidates, is Mike
Gravel. He is 88 years old and last ran for president in 2008. On March 19, 2019, Gravel announced he was running in 2020 and on April 2nd he filed a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission. Gravel was apparently encouraged to run by a couple of teenagers from New York, who run his Twitter account and arranged the filing with the FEC.
Gravel has made it clear that he is not really running for President, rather he is “running” to get on the debate stage by meeting the minimum qualifications. Gravel said on April 22nd that he had already met the 200 donors from at least 20 states and was on track to meet the 65,000 unique donors, requirement.
Announced/Running/Formed Committee
Michael Bennett (D) – U.S. Senator – Age 54
Joe Biden (D) – former Vice President, former U.S. Senator – Age 76
Cory Booker (D) – U.S. Senator – Age 49
Steve Bullock (D) – Governor of Montana – Age 53
Pete Buttigieg (D) – Mayor of South Bend, Indiana – Age 37
Julian Castro (D) – Former HUD Secretary – Age 44
John Delaney (D) – former U.S. Representative – Age 55
Bill DeBlasio (D) – Mayor of New York, New York – Age 58
Tulsi Gabbard (D) – U.S. Representative – Age 37
Kirsten Gillibrand (D) – U.S. Senator – Age 52
Mike Gravel (D) – former U.S. Senator – Age 88
Kamala Harris (D) – U.S. Senator – Age 54
John Hickenlooper (D) – Governor of Colorado – Age 67
Jay Inslee (D) – Governor of Washington – Age 68
Amy Klobuchar (D) – U.S. Senator – Age 58
Wayne Messam (D) – Mayor of Miramar, Florida – Age 44
Seth Moulton (D) – U.S. Representative – 40
Beto O’Rourke (D) – former U.S. Representative – Age 46
Tim Ryan (D) – U.S. Representative – Age 45
Bernie Sanders (D) – U.S. Senator – Age 77
Eric Swalwell (D) – U.S. Representative – 39
Elizabeth Warren (D) – U.S. Senator – Age 69
Marianne Williamson – Spiritualist, teacher – Age 66
Andrew Yang – Entrepreneur – Age 44
Testing the Waters
Howard Schultz – Founder & Exec. Chairman, Starbucks – Age 65 (May run as an Independent)
Mentioned
Stacy Abrams (D) – former candidate for Governor of Georgia – Age 45
Mark Warner (D) – U.S. Senator – Age 64
John Kerry (D) – former U.S. Senator, former Secretary of State, former presidential candidate – Age 75
There are various actions used to describe each candidate’s entry into the 2020 presidential race for the Democratic nomination: starting an exploratory committee, filing a campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission, and becoming publicly active in ways that garner media attention without spending much money. Harry Enten of CNN uses the term “entered the race” which WW is adopting. The following chart is based on the surveys of Morning Consult.
| Entered the race | 5/20/19 | |
| Joe Biden | 4/25/19 | 39% |
| Bernie Sanders | 2/19/19 | 19% |
| Elizabeth Warren | 12/31/18 | 9% |
| Kamala Harris | 1/21/19 | 8% |
| Pete Buttigieg | 1/23/19 | 6% |
| Beto O’Rourke | 3/14/19 | 4% |
| Cory Booker | 1/1/19 | 3% |
| Amy Klobuchar | 2/10/19 | 1% |
| Julian Castro | 12/12/18 | 1% |
| Tulsi Gabbard | 1/11/19 | 1% |
| Kirsten Gillibrand | 1/15/19 | 1% |
| John Hickenlooper | 3/4/19 | 1% |
| Steve Bullock | 5/14/19 | 1% |
| Bill de Blasio | 5/16/19 | 1% |
| Andrew Yang | 11/6/17 | 1% |
| Tim Ryan | 4/4/19 | 1% |
| Michael Bennett | 5/2/19 | 1% |
| John Delaney | 7/28/19 | 1% |
| Jay Inslee | 3/1/19 | 0% |
| Wayne Messam | 3/13/19 | 0% |
| Seth Moulton | 4/22/19 | 0% |
| Marianne Williamson | 11/15/18 | 0% |
| Mike Gravel | 4/2/19 | 0% |
| Eric Salwell | 4/8/19 | 0% |
The Democratic nominating convention is scheduled for July 13-16, 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Democratic Debates of the 2020 Nomination Season
1st Debate – June 26 & 27 in Miami, Florida
2nd Debate – July 30 & 31 in Detroit, Michigan
Republican Primary
Announced/Running
Donald Trump – President – Age 72
William Weld I – former Governor of Massachusetts – Age 73
Testing the Waters
Larry Hogan I – Governor of Maryland – Age 62
The Republican nominating convention is scheduled for August 24-27, 2020 in Charlotte, NC.