With an eye on 2020, Democrats jockey to define party, win favor
The future of the Democratic Party has been booking late-night TV gigs, waking up for morning drivetime radio and showing up at watering holes in rural counties to try out new material.
Before the start of a 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, at least 25 candidates — mayors, governors, entrepreneurs, members of the House and Senate — have hit the road to workshop their vision, experiment with catchphrases and test policy ideas that could keep President Donald Trump from winning a second term.
Many deny that their actions have anything to do with a coming presidential run, but they unmistakably play off the chords of campaigns past, seeking a way to break through a political maw that has been focused more on the latest actions of the president and the coming midterm elections.
“I don’t want to speak to Democrats only,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who recently appeared on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live to riff on the Founding Fathers’ vision of patriotism and love. “I’m talking to us as Americans, about how this is a moral moment.”
In front of policy conferences and campaign rallies for congressional candidates, former vice president Joe Biden has been updating his own paeons to the middle class, repeating his thematic refrain that “America is all about possibilities.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has broadened her calls for people to “fight back,” and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has demanded that “we must speak truth.”
“This is like taking the play to Topeka and New Haven to see what works before you even get to Broadway,” said David Axelrod, a former strategist for President Barack Obama who hosts would-be candidates for public forums at the University of Chicago. “The season hasn’t opened.”
At stake in the rehearsals is nothing less than the future of the Democratic Party, which has yet to congeal around a positive vision. Party leaders privately talk about the next two years as a potential pivot point for what it means to be a Democrat, like the tumultuous 1968 Democratic convention or the businessfriendly realignment that followed President Bill Clinton’s nomination in 1992.
“The Democratic trajectory right now is more uncertain than it has been since I started in politics in the ’80s,” said Simon Rosenberg, a longtime Democratic strategist at NDN, a think tank. “And I think no one has a leg up.”
The questions are big ones — of style and policy - that can only be answered in the story told by the candidate who eventually captures the party’s imagination.
Some promote a vision of a youthful future, while others speak of their own wizened experience. Some are brawlers ready to take on Trump, while others pose as healers to call the country back to better angels.
“My theory of this election is you are going to basically have a swing back,” said Julián Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio and secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who has been traveling the country talking about “expanding opportunity.” “People are going to look for someone who can unite the country instead of divide it, someone they can trust.”