With all these contenders in what promises to be an exciting 2020 presidential campaign season, it may be hard to keep up with who’s running. There are senators, businesspeople, and even authors in the mix, as the field starts to grow for the Democratic seat. Here’s a compilation to keep handy as new candidates enter the field and vie to unseat Donald Trump as President of the United States (POTUS).
- 13 Democratic candidates have announced their campaigns, so far.
- Two Democratic candidates have announced exploratory committees, so far.
- 13 names have been tossed around as “considering” a run on the Democratic Party ticket.
(One candidate, Richard Ojeda, a 2016 Trump voter and a former Army paratrooper, who earned the rank of major after having served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, dropped out of the race back in January).
Here’s the breakdown:
Democratic candidates who have announced campaigns (alphabetical order)
1. Sen. Cory Booker, 49
Announced his candidacy for president on February 1, 2019, almost a year to the day from the Iowa caucuses. The senator from New Jersey first catapulted to national recognition as Newark’s mayor, as he helped physically shovel his residents out of major snowstorms.
2. Julian Castro, 44
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and son of a Chicana activist who is noted for his focus on education, Castro announced his run on January 12. He served as mayor of San Antonio in 2009.
3. Rep. John Delaney (former), 55
Delaney, a former United States Representative for Maryland’s 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2019, started his run for president by declaring his candidacy back on July 28, 2017. He was once the youngest CEO on the New York Stock Exchange.
4. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, 37
Gabbard is the first American Samoan and the first Hindu member of Congress for the state of Hawaii, and has been an Iraq War veteran. She announced her run on January 11, 2019. Her star power faces challenges to her controversial record of joining Republicans in insisting that Barack Obama use the term “radical Islam,” meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and being tied to anti-LGBTQ groups and anti-Muslim Hindu nationalists.
5. Sen. Kamala Harris, 54
The California senator announced her campaign for the 2020 presidential elections on January 28, 2019. She’s the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants. Her campaign faces some pushback, including her earlier support of a 2008 San Francisco policy that called for the arrest of undocumented juveniles to ICE.
6. Gov. John Hickenlooper, 67
In his eight years as Colorado’s governor, Hickenlooper faced many tragedies. Colorado faced several wildfires and floods in 2013. In 2012, a shooting in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, left 12 people dead and traumatized the nation. Hickenlooper governed during those times, and reportedly reached across the aisle to do so. USA Today released a report in August of 2018, showing that Hickenlooper’s state of Colorado had the best economy in the United States. Read the report by USA Today, here.
7. Gov. Jay Inslee, 68
The State of Washington governor has held elected office for decades, and became governor in 2013. He opposed Donald Trump in more than way, most notably his lawsuit against the president’s Muslim ban. Inslee will be running on a climate change platform in 2020. He announced his campaign for presidency on March 1, 2019.
8. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, 58
The State of Minnesota senator, Klobuchar, is running as a moderate is looking to work in a bipartisan way and win the working class vote. She announced her candidacy for president on February 11, 2019.
9. Beto O’Rourke, 46
The Democratic Party’s former congressman from Texas said in the video above that he is running for president. He had run a strong and impressive campaign against Republican senator, Ted Cruz, to whom he’d lost by a slither.
10. Sen. Bernie Sanders, 77
The senator ran in the last presidential election cycle, and is known as a democratic socialist from Vermont. His policy agenda is progressive and includes expanding health care and making higher education free.
11. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 69
The Massachusetts senator launched the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and passed a relief program in response to the 2008 financial crisis. She announced her candidacy for president on
12. Marianne Williamson, 66
Williamson an author (and spiritual counselor to Oprah Winfrey) from Texas is a best-selling author, who is campaigning on a platform that calls for “a moral and spiritual awakening in the country.” with her campaign. She announced on January 29, 2019.
13. Andrew Yang, 44
An entrepreneur from New York who launched Venture for America, is running for president on a platform to give all Americans a universal basic income of $1,000 per month–as part of his strategy to address economic inequality. He announced on
Democratic candidates who have announced exploratory committees
1. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (IN)
2. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
Democratic candidates who are reportedly “considering” a run (in alphabetical order)
- 1. Sen. Michael Bennet
2. Former Vice President Joe Biden
3. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg
4. Sen. Sherrod Brown
5. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock
6. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio
7. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper
*. Former Attorney General Eric Holder – announced on March 4, 2019 that he will not run
8. Former Secretary of State John Kerry
9. Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe
10. Sen. Jeff Merkley
11. Rep. Seth Moulton
12. Rep. Tim Ryan
13. Rep. Eric Swalwell