Schatz For President In 2020? Don’t Count On It, He Says
Told his name is being “bandied about” as a possible candidate, the Hawaii senator dismissed any notion that he might run.
WASHINGTON 鈥斕Maybe it’s just a sign of how wide open the Democratic field is for 2020, but Hawaii’s senior senator was asked about the possibility of running for president during interview that aired Tuesday.
Morning Edition host Rachel Martin was talking to Brian Schatz about how Democrats should approach the upcoming 2018 midterm elections in the wake of Donald Trump鈥檚 improbable rise to the presidency.
Martin said Schatz鈥檚 name has been 鈥渂andied about鈥 as a potential candidate.
And while she didn鈥檛 directly put Schatz on the spot about it, the senator made clear that he has no plans to seek higher office.
Instead, he said he鈥檇 like to see a wide open Democratic primary process in which voters select the best candidates from a broad spectrum of political backgrounds, unlike in 2016.
鈥淭his time I think we need to see eight or 10 of my colleagues in the Senate running, I think we need to see mayors running, I think we need to see governors running,鈥 Schatz said.
鈥淎nybody who thinks that they should lead the country should go ahead and put their hat in the ring. I am not among them, and I want to be unequivocal about that. There are no circumstances. I don鈥檛 want to be coy about this.鈥
Schatz has been raising his profile ever since he was appointed to the Senate in 2012 after the death of U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.
He鈥檚 become the chamber鈥檚 most vocal supporter of policies to address climate change, and most recently introduced a plan to make college debt-free for all students.
But he鈥檚 not often discussed in the same breath as some of his colleagues, such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, when it comes to the Senate鈥檚 most likely candidates for president.
Schatz isn鈥檛 even the most talked about potential candidate in Hawaii.听That distinction usually goes to U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
“I think we need to see eight or ten of my colleagues in the Senate running, I think we need to see mayors running, I think we need to see governors running.鈥 鈥 Sen Brian Schatz
Geoffrey Skelley is a political analyst with University of Virginia . He said that although Schatz has been getting more notoriety in the press and on social media, he’s pretty far down the list of potential presidential candidates.
Politicians from Hawaii traditionally have a more difficult time nudging their way into that conversation, Skelley said, because they represent a small state far from the mainland.
鈥淎nother way of looking at this is to acknowledge that every Democrat under the sun is looking at possibly running in 2020 against President Trump,鈥 Skelley said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 mainly because a lot of Democrats think Trump is going to be very vulnerable in 2020, and also because, in general, the left is very animated and energized to oppose Trump.鈥
In the NPR interview, Schatz talked about what it will take for Democrats to win in 2018 and beyond.
He said it鈥檚 important for candidates to show some conviction. He mentioned Trump鈥檚 proposed travel ban that targeted Muslim-majority countries, a maneuver that led to widespread protests and legal challenges, including from Hawaii.
Schatz said a number of strategists and pollsters have told senators, including him, to be careful about pushing back against it because it polled reasonably well.
鈥淲hat we told them is, first of all, this is a matter of conscience, and second of all, you are the people who just lost the election with us,鈥 Schatz said.
He then pointed to polls that now show a majority of Americans are .
鈥淣othing is a given,鈥 Schatz said. 鈥淚 think that we walked into that last election cycle 鈥 and so did the media and so did many of the voters 鈥 thinking to ourselves that it was virtually impossible that Donald Trump would be president.
鈥淣ow he鈥檚 got the power of the presidency, the power of incumbency and I think we would be extremely unwise to walk into this cocky. We can be confident. We can be motivated. We can be organized. But you have to run through the tape.鈥
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