5 New Yorkers Who Might Be Running For The 2020 Presidential Bid

We are not even a quarter through Donald Trump’s presidency, yet with all controversy surrounding all of Trump’s decisions, we are interested to see what will happen in the future. Last week Trump announced that he was banning transgender people from serving in the military, a right that President Obama worked hard to achieved. We can add this to the list of Trump’s recent legislation including the “Muslim ban”, Trump’s healthcare bill failing to pass Senate four times, not to mention the media frenzy surrounding Donald Trump Jr.’s alleged collusion with a Russian lawyer. With all that has been going on, some people are looking to the future to see who might be the brave person run for the presidency in 2020 and follow after Trump.

-By Shivani Gonzalez

Let’s take a look at Five New Yorkers Who Might Be Running For The 2020 Presidential Bid

Andrew Cuomo

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Andrew Cuomo, the current Governor of New York State has been suspected of planning to run for president since he made a speech following Hillary Clinton’s loss when he said “we need to win back the middle-class while pushing the progressive values.” He is potentially thinking of running for re election for Governor in 2018 which would take him out of the presidential race but he has also hired two fundraisers from Florida which could be a sign that he will be running a nation wide campaign instead. People in New York State have mixed reviews on him because the majority of people in Upstate New York strongly lean towards a conservative viewpoint. Cuomo himself is very progressive and has campaigned strongly for women’s healthcare, safer gun laws and barring against legislation that could have detrimental effects to the environment. When same-sex marriage was legalized in 2011 in New York State, Cuomo was the one who pushed for legislation for that to happen. He has also effectively banned hydrofracking in New York State and passed the New York Safe Act after Sandy Hook which broadened the definition of assault weapons, background checks for ammunition dealers, new reporting requirements for mental health professionals and several others. Cuomo could go far in a presidential run because of he is known as the politician who actually does what every one else just talks about doing and he is generally well liked and respected in his current position – case in point, at a recent rally in NYC Cuomo stated that the NYS Attorney General Eric Schniedermann will be suing the Trump administration if his health care bill passes.

Kirsten Gillibrand

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Following in Hillary Clinton’s footsteps, Kirsten Gillibrand could be the second women to be the nominee for a major political party. Gillibrand has actually already followed in Clinton’s footsteps as her Senate successor. Gillibrand is currently New York State’s Senator and she made waves following Trump’s election when she was the Senator leading the fight against confirming Trump’s cabinet members for which she was called a “unlikely holy warrior”. She is most known in her position for fighting for sexual assault survivors on college campuses and the military and therefore has captured the respect of young millennial women which was a demographic that Hillary Clinton struggled with. She is well liked in her constituency, she won her campaign for Senator in 2012 with 72% of the votes. While she has been on the top of every list when looking at Democratic nominees for 2020, she recently maintained the fact that she was focused on another Senate run in 2018 and that her focus was on the people of her state. While she is playing coy now, it is possible that she will have a change of heart as Trump’s administration continues to change things up in the world of politics.

Bill De Blasio

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Another high up New York State official, Bill De Blasio has been looked at towards for the potential Democratic nominee for 2020. Considering the fact that De Blasio is the Mayor of one of the most famous cities on earth he is a less known political figure and could be a dark horse in this race. He recently unveiled a new plan “One New York Plan” which will aim to fight poverty, promote cleaner air, and modernize modern transit, all things New Yorkers desperately need. If he is able to pull it off, it could look great for a future presidential run. He, like the others listed above has been playing coy with the idea, saying that he was looking to run for re election in 2017 but considering the fact that he was very hesitant to endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016 and could be the person who wins over the people who were not so thrilled about the idea of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee.

Tom Steyer

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Tom Steyer is not as well known of a political figure as the first three on this list but he has been making a big impact on politics behind the scenes. Steyner currently resides in California but he was born in New York. He is a hedge fund manager, philanthropist, environmentalist, fundraiser and liberal activist. His current net worth is $1.6 billion and he backed the Democratic party and environmental causes with $64 million in the 2014 Senate campaign which was the largest amount by any individual donor on either side and he topped that in the latest election cycle spending roughly $100 million. He was very shocked when Trump won the presidency and that is what has motivated him to think about running in 2020. He was originally suspected to be thinking about running for the Governor’s race in California but now with the Democrat’s loss in the last election, he could be more motivated to run for President. He could be a viable candidate because while he has no actual political experience (evidently that is not that big of a qualifier in the minds of the American people) he would be able to self fund the majority of his campaign. Additionally, with more reports daily about the dramatic and drastic effects we are already seeing everyday of climate change (the Great Barrier Reef was pronounced dead earlier this week), people might be interested in having a candidate who puts such an emphasis on environmental issues and has the money to back it up. Steyner could be following in Trump’s footsteps by running for President with no political knowledge but Steyner’s passion for the environment and the values of the Democratic party could be what makes him different.

Sean Patrick Maloney

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Sean Patrick Maloney is a member of the House of Representatives for New York’s 18^th district. He has had lots of political experience including his run for New York State Attorney General (he lost to Andrew Cuomo), defeated Republican incumbent in the 2012 House of Representatives race and is a member of the New Democrat Coalition. He first got into politics when he worked on Bill Clinton’s campaign and was later a part of Governor Elliot Spitzer’s administration. He is known for being the first openly gay person to be elected to Congress in New York. He released a statement following President Trump’s first address to Congress which said “if you want to work together to rebuild transportation and infrastructure systems, fight the heroin epidemic, and be creating good paying jobs for my neighbors in the Hudson Valley … the clumsy and ill conceived actions President Trump has taken so far, which have undermined our constitution, make it difficult to work with him. But I will stay at it”. His drive, passion for NYS and diversity make him a shoe in for a good presidential candidate.

-S.G.