This story is from November 12, 2018

Kamala Harris and Tulsi Gabbard among two dozen Democrats in 2020 White House race

Two candidates with strong 'desi' ties- California Senator Kamala Harris and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard are in the race to get a Democratic ticket to content against Donald Trump in 2020 Presidential election. In addition, there is also talk on the Republican side that South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, could be eyeing a White House run in 2024.
Kamala Harris and Tulsi Gabbard among two dozen Democrats in 2020 White House race
Kamla Harris (L) and Tulsi Gabbard are expected to run for Democratic nomination for the 2020 Presidential elections
Key Highlights
  • Almost two dozen aspirants for the Democratic ticket to run against Donald Trump in 2020
  • California Senator Kamala Harris and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, both with Indian links are being seen as serious contenders for Democratic nomination
WASHINGTON: A week hasn’t passed since the US mid-term polls, and scramble is already on for the 2020 Presidential election with some two dozen aspirants for the Democratic ticket to run against Donald Trump. Among them, two candidates with strong 'desi' ties: California Senator Kamala Harris and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
Both Harris and Gabbard have made early moves, reaching out to party workers and voters in Iowa, whose caucuses kick off the 2020 presidential cycle on February 3, 2020.
Although that’s more than a year away, such is the tortuous and extended nature of the US elections that presidential hopefuls begin connecting with party leaders, donors, and activists months in advance as they lay groundwork for the campaign.
Harris, 49, spent several days in Iowa during the mid-term poll canvassing for Democratic candidates, and reminiscing about her own work there during the historic 2008 Obama campaign when she said in addition to door-knocking, she became the Obama campaign's de facto pizza-delivery person because "no job was too small."
Elsewhere this past week, Tulsi Gabbard, 37, fresh from a fourth-term victory in the Congressional elections, was introduced at a Los Angeles conference as the next President. Politico magazine reported last month that Gabbard’s adviser Rania Batrice 'is reaching out to speechwriters and digital campaign staff with no explicit mention of a 2020 run, but with such a time frame heavily implied.'
"Amid the clamor of Trump headlines and focus on higher-profile candidates, Gabbard has been quietly making the traditional moves of a presidential candidate. She recently visited Iowa, where locals urged her to run for president. She keynoted a progressive gathering in New Hampshire in September. And she’s writing a book due out this spring titled, "Is Today the Day?: Not Another Political Memoir," the journal noted.

California born Kamala Harris, whose mother Shyamala Gopalan was a cancer researcher from Tamil Nadu (her father Donald Harris was an economics professor from Jamaica) is a first term Senator but is considered a consummate Democratic insider given her stints as a District Attorney in San Francisco and Attorney General of California.
Tulsi Gabbard is a Caucasian born in American Samoa to a Catholic father (Hawaii State Senator Mike Gabbard) and a mother Carol Porter Gabbard who embraced Hinduism, as did the daughter when she was young. A self-described Hindu, Gabbard, if she wins the nomination, would be the first Hindu candidate ever from a major political party to run for President.
In addition, there is also talk on the Republican side that South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, a Sikhni who was born Nimrata Randhawa, could be eyeing a White House run in 2024.

But it is the crowded Democratic field that is garnering attention in the immediate aftermath of the midterm polls in which Democrats not only recaptured the House, but also did well enough to raise hopes of regaining the White House in 2020.
Other aspirants being mentioned in the race for the Democratic ticket are Senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gilibrand, and Elizabeth Warren; former vice-president Joe Biden; former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, current and former governors Jay Inslee, Terry McAuliffe, Martin O’Malley, besides an assortment of other public figures such as Starbucks tycoon Howard Schultz and attorney Michael Avenatti.
Then there are the insiders who are sentimental favorites of other insiders: Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. While both have repeatedly knocked down the idea that they will run, some commentators are convinced that they will change their mind.
"Get ready for Hillary Clinton 4.0. More than 30 years in the making, this new version of Mrs. Clinton, when she runs for president in 2020, will come full circle—back to the universal-health-care-promoting progressive firebrand of 1994. True to her name, Mrs. Clinton will fight this out until the last dog dies. She won’t let a little thing like two stunning defeats stand in the way of her claim to the White House," Mark Penn, a former strategist for the Clinton campaign wrote in a commentary over the weekend.
There’s not much confusion on the Republican side. President Trump has said he will run again with vice-president Mike Pence as his running mate, and what more, he and his acolytes are confident he will win a second term, not in the least because Democrats will expend a lot of time, energy, and money knocking each other over.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA