Billionaires (even liberal ones) are Democrats’ foil for 2020

With populism making a strong comeback on the Democratic left, liberals have found an early, enticing foil in the party’s 2020 presidential primary: billionaires like Michael Bloomberg who could bankroll their own campaigns or finance others.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts fired several shots after entering the race this month, denouncing “campaigns that are funded by billionaires, whether it goes through super PACS or their own money.” When Rachel Maddow of MSNBC asked if billionaire Democrats like Bloomberg and Tom Steyer should not run for president, Warren made a distinction.

“I just mean people should not be self-funding,” she said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist who is eyeing 2020, inveighed against “the billionaire class” as well, and left-wing activists heckled Bloomberg over his wealth when he visited Iowa last month. Even Connie Schultz, the wife of Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, mocked suggestions that Bloomberg would spend $100 million or more on his own possible presidential campaign.

“‘I want a man who wants to buy himself a presidency,’ I’ve thought precisely never,” wrote Schultz, whose husband is eyeing a 2020 run.

As three dozen Democrats consider a 2020 run, potential candidates are taking populist positions on capitalism, income inequality, taxes and health care, and embracing the favored label of the moment: “progressive.” Many of them have little interest in the pragmatic politics and big-donor appeal of Hillary Clinton, the 2016 nominee. But with Democrats needing to define themselves in what will likely be a crowded field, the most liberal candidates are making an issue of wealth even though some of these billionaires have liberal policy views themselves.

On Wednesday, Steyer took himself out of the 2020 running after weeks of hinting that he might enter the race. A fierce advocate of