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Motivated by an urgency to unseat President Donald Trump and the prospect of a historically large primary field, Democrats see little incentive to delay or downplay their 2020 presidential hopes. Their more transparent approach is upending one of Washington’s favorite “will they or won’t they” parlor games and pushed the campaign calendar up earlier than ever before.
“No one is waiting for anyone in the race to run for president,” said Jim Messina, who managed President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. “Those days are long, long over.”
Running for president used to involve a familiar routine, with potential candidates spending months publicly demurring about their ambitions and professing to be content in their current roles. Advisers labored to keep meetings with donors and potential staff under wraps ahead of formal, carefully choreographed campaign announcements.
This time around, many Democrats believe it would be too risky to wait much longer before making their intentions known, particularly those with lower national profiles who could quickly be overshadowed by a field that could have more than two dozen candidates.
There are practicalities to consider, given the limited supply of money and top-flight staff available to run a campaign. But another driving factor is more visceral: Democrats are simply eager to take on the president.
“This is starting very fast,” said former Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky. She said that given the imperative to beat Trump, “it kind of needs to.”
Two long-shot Democrats have already declared their candidacy.