Democrats fearing a split of the Never Trump vote might have to worry about Starbucks' former CEO Howard Schultz running against President Donald Trump in 2020.
"Howard Schultz could secure Trump's re-election," Washington state Democratic Chair Tina Podlodowski wrote in a fundrasing email this week, The Atlantic reported.
"This worst-case scenario keeps me up at night. I want to spend our resources fighting for Democrats up and down the ballot, not fending off Howard Schultz's independent bid."
Schultz teased a potential 2020 run for president in a "60 Minutes" interview to air Sunday night, ripping President Trump and the Democratic resistance and obstruction against him.
"We're living at a most fragile time – not only the fact that this president is not qualified to be the president, but the fact that both parties are consistently not doing what's necessary on behalf of the American people and are engaged every day in revenge politics," Schultz told CBS in a clip of the prerecorded interview.
A Democratic strategist ripped Schultz's campaign as another wealthy CEO political outsider.
"Trump's strategy has always been divide and conquer, and this plays directly into his hands," the strategist told The Atlantic. "He's Ralph Nader without any of Nader's redeeming qualities. What's his value proposition for America? Make America like a corporate chain?"
Count conservative Never Trumper Bill Kristol in against a third-party challenge.
"One reason my colleagues and I are focused on a Republican primary challenge to Trump — apart from the fact that we're Republicans — is that it doesn't present any of the problems of inadvertently helping him by being a spoiler," Kristol wrote in an email to The Atlantic.
"For 2019 at least, the fact that serious people like Howard Schultz are considering an Independent race might help bring home to more voters, including Independents and some Republicans, how important it is to replace Trump. So in that respect it's a good thing."
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