Some big-name Democrats are positioning themselves for a potential 2024 presidential run should President Joe Biden bow out, reports The Washington Times.
Political giants Hillary Clinton and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have spurred talk of a 2024 run with national op-eds and ads.
Other lawmakers, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ro Khanna of California, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, according to the Times, have either been endorsing candidates ahead of the midterm elections, raising money for the Democratic National Party, or visiting early primary and caucus states.
Newsom last week released an ad in Florida slamming counterpart Ron DeSantis.
"Freedom — it's under attack in your state," Newsom says in the commercial as images of DeSantis and former President Donald Trump flash across the screen. "Republican leaders, they're banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors."
Several writers in the last few weeks wrote of a Clinton re-emergence, including John Ellis and Juan Williams.
Biden, even at his advanced age, says he plans to run again. But many Democrats are irked with that decision, according to a recent article in The New York Times.
"Facing intensifying skepticism about his capacity to run for re-election when he will be nearly 82, the president and his top aides have been stung by the questions about his plans, irritated at what they see as a lack of respect from their party and the press, and determined to tamp down suggestions that he's effectively a lame duck a year and a half into his administration," the Times said.
Clinton last week, though, said she couldn't "imagine" running again and Newsom's team said the TV ad wasn't to spur talk of a 2024 bid.
"The proliferation of these topics in the press shows that there is mistrust and angst within the Democratic Party about Joe Biden's ability to run again and win," Andrew Smith, a pollster and political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, told the news outlet. "These things don't happen in a vacuum. If the press is writing about them it's because people are talking."
Vice President Kamala Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are also considered top contenders.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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