Not since John F Kennedy in 1960 has a president won the White House without winning Ohio. On Sunday, two Ohio politicians said they were giving serious consideration to running in 2020.
Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, told ABC’s This Week he and his wife were “seriously thinking about it”.
John Kasich, the outgoing Republican governor, told the same show he was considering it “very seriously”.
Brown, who won re-election this month, is thought by some to appeal to voters in northern, post-industrial “rust belt” states that backed Donald Trump in 2016.
Perhaps trying out a Democratic spin on the Republican’s winning formula, he said: “To me, populism is never antisemitic, it’s never racist, it never pushes people down in order to lift others up. That’s the phoney populism of Donald Trump. To me, populism respects the dignity of work and moves forward and tries to lift all boats.”
Kasich, a former congressman who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination in 2000 and 2016, has established himself as a leading critic of Trump, who he would face in a primary.
“We need different leadership,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it. I’m not just worried about the tone and the name-calling and the division in our country, and the partisanship. I also worry about the policies. You know, rising debt. An inability to deal with immigration, the problems that we have as America alone in the world … I’m worried about our country.”
ABC almost scored a triple. A third northern politician touted by some for 2020, the Minnesota Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar, told the same show she “did well in a number of those places Donald Trump won”.
But she added: “I am just still thinking about this. I’m sorry to say, I have no announcement for you on your show.”
In the run-up to the Iowa caucuses in February 2020, the field of potential Democratic challengers – or just those who have not actively disavowed the ambition – is becoming distinctly crowded.
The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey senator Cory Booker, California senator Kamala Harris, Vermont independent senator Bernie Sanders and former vice-president Joe Biden are among heavyweight names bandied about by the media – and by themselves.
There has even been talk of a third run by Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, New York senator and secretary of state who lost the nomination to Barack Obama in 2008 and the election to Trump eight years later.
On the progressive wing of the party, many think the Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke will run, having mounted an organisationally and financially impressive – if failed – attempt to unseat Senator Ted Cruz.
From outside politics, the billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has been reported to be considering a run. Another billionaire, Tom Steyer, has financed a campaign for Trump’s impeachment and is thought a possible contender.
The former Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz and Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Trump accuser Stormy Daniels, have also flirted with a run.
Two long-odds outsiders, Maryland congressman John Delaney and defeated West Virginia congressional candidate Richard Ojeda, have formally declared their candidacies.
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