The 2020 race kicks into a higher gear -- even before the 2018 midterms are over
Voters have yet to go to the polls in the 2018 midterms, but President Trump and many of the potential contenders aiming to unseat him were already trading fire during what might be viewed as the first official weekend of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Some, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and attorney Michael Avenatti, addressed their presidential ambitions head-on. Others, such as Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), fueled speculation; the vocal Trump critic is slated to make his second visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire on Monday, days after his call for an FBI probe into Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh propelled him into the national spotlight.
All the while, Trump himself escalated his attacks on potential opponents, calling out several of them by name in a blistering speech in West Virginia on Saturday night.
The events put into focus the dilemma facing Democrats — and some Republicans — as the campaign begins in earnest: Should they wade into the mud and make attacking Trump a centerpiece of their efforts, or should they attempt to craft a more uplifting message of their own?
“There will be a group of folks that are tempted to try to play Trump’s game. I think that the most effective antidote to Trump will be to reclaim what it means to be a populist in a more hopeful, optimistic and aspirational way,” said Mo Elleithee, a longtime Democratic operative who is now executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service.
The 2020 salvos come as this year’s midterm elections enter their frenzied final stretch and with both parties bitterly at odds over Kavanaugh, who is being investigated by the FBI after Christine Blasey Ford alleged that he sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers.
More than two dozen Democrats are considered prospective presidential candidates, including lawmakers such as Warren, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), as well as former vice president Joe Biden, former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and entrepreneur Mark Cuban.
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