Hickenlooper and Kasich trade Twitter jabs

The Denver Post

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper departs Tuesday for his first visit to Iowa — an early presidential battleground — and Ohio Gov. John Kasich is taking notice.

“I see my friend @hickforco is headed to Iowa. They say no one goes there own continued flirtations with a bid for the White House — the Ohio governor is headed to New Hampshire this week — after he lost the party’s nomination in 2016.

Hickenlooper maintains that the visit is not political, but instead an official visit to attend a workforce development forum at the request of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. In a brief interview Monday, Hickenlooper said prominent Iowa Democrats contacted him and offered to help organize a political event for him to speak but he declined — in part because of how it would look.

Hickenlooper goes to great lengths to emphasize that he is not pursuing a presidential bid in 2020 against Donald Trump, but a report in The Post revealed he attended numerous meetings in recent months with top-level national political players and more than a dozen Democratic insiders and that Hickenlooper allies said he is moving closer than ever to a potential run.

From Iowa, Hickenlooper is traveling to New York for some national media interviews and then traveling to Washington, D.C., where he will spend two days at speaking events.