New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s planned visit to New Hampshire on Friday prompts speculation that he may enter the crowded 2020 Democrat presidential field.
New Hampshire holds the first primary in the 2020 presidential election. He will meet with Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess (D) and perhaps with locals at a diner, according to Politico.
He will meet later with organizers and progressive activists in Concord from three grassroots groups — Rights and Democracy New Hampshire, the Kent Street Coalition, and Granite State Organizing Project, for an event named “How We Raise Up NH – lessons & discussion with NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio,” according to Fox News.
If de Blasio enters the race, he would be the seventh major candidate on the Democrat side, along with Sen. Cory Booker (NJ), former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, former U.S. Representative John Delaney, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (HI), Sen. Kamala Harris (CA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (MN), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Others are contemplating a run, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (TX), former Vice President Joe Biden (DE), and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz entered the race as an independent on Tuesday.
In keeping with the field’s shift farther to the left, de Blasio has been pushing for wealth distribution. Last month, he complained that money in New York City was in the “wrong hands.”
“He wants to make sure ideas like pre-K for all, paid personal time and mental health are on the table as Democrats debate the party’s vision for the future,” Casca told Politico in a statement.
But, as Politico noted, despite his affordable housing plan, the homeless population has increased on his watch, and the public housing authority is in such bad shape, the Trump administration recently had to impose a federal monitor.
A New York Post editorial this week called him a “guy who just refuses to take a hint.”
“Mayor Bill de Blasio somehow still thinks America is clamoring for him to run for president,” it said.
New York Post columnist Maureen Callahan wrote in a separate piece:
It’s been astonishing to watch Bill de Blasio still prancing on the national stage, to hear his delusional musings on a 2020 presidential run and of his announced trip this Friday to the key primary state of New Hampshire, all while he remains unwilling to acknowledge this truth: For most of us, New York City under his mayoralty has become aggressively unlivable.
…
Not since David Dinkins has New York City felt so neglected — but at least his neglect felt benign. De Blasio just oozes contempt for dealing with the inner workings of government, for grinding it out on any level. To do so might interfere with his naps, his workouts, his national and international trips to raise his profile. He has so much more to do than actually run his own city.
Vanity Fair’s progressive “Hive” blog ran a piece this week titled “Lord Help Us, Bill de Blasio Is Still Thinking About Running for President.”
“A series of scandals over the past several years has also eroded the patina and high hopes with which de Blasio took office in 2014,” Vanity Fair’s Eric Lutz wrote.
But, he added, “With enough positive reinforcement, however, he might just make the leap.”
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