Who Is Still Running for President in 2020

Delaney, a 55-year-old businessman and former Maryland Congressional representative, has been running for president almost as long as President Donald Trump has been in office: He announced his campaign in July 2017, according to Bostion radio station WBUR.

Hillary Clinton’s surprising loss “made me say, ‘We have to think differently about everything,’ ” Delaney, a Democrat who left office earlier this year, told WBUR. “We really need to move to a bit of a post-partisan world where we actually start solving problems.”

RELATED: Who Has Dropped Out of the 2020 Presidential Race

In his WBUR interview, Delaney outlined more moderate positions than many of his Democratic colleagues. For example, he said he supports “a system of universal health care where every American has health care as a fundamental right” but does not believed in a government-backed “Medicare-for-all.” He also said he believes in a compromise on border security that includes some physical barriers between the U.S. and Mexico.

Yang, the 44-year-old founder of Venture for America (described by the New York Times as “a Teach for America for Entrepreneurs”), has been running for president for more than a year. He’s built his campaign on a pledge to provide a universal basic income of $1,000 each month for every American adult.

According to the Times, Yang is pushing such a policy as a response to what he believes could be an economic catastrophe wrought by increasin automation, leaving many Americans without jobs.

“I’m a capitalist,” he told the paper last year, “and I believe that universal basic income is necessary for capitalism to continue.”

“I know the country my sons will grow up in is going to be very different than the one I grew up in,” Yang says on his campaign website, “and I want to look back at my life knowing I did everything in my power to create the kind of future our children deserve.”

According to PBS, Yang recently crossed the donor threshhold to be included in upcoming debates among the Democratic primary candidates where he is likely to make the biggest splash among those without formal political experience.

At the end of December, the Massachusetts Democrat, 69, began her presidential bid. 

The former Harvard bankruptcy law professor — who has drawn headlines for a DNA test she took to prove she has Native American heritage — is known for advocating for more regulations on Wall Street and big corporations. Before joining the Senate she was an adviser to President Obama.

“If you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to take care of yourself and the people you love,” Warren said in her video announcement.

“We can make our democracy work for all of us,” she continued. “We can make our economy work for all of us.”

The former secretary of housing and urban development, 44, announced he was running in January in San Antonio, Texas, where he was mayor before joining President Barack Obama‘s administration. If elected, he would become the country’s first Latino president.

Castro, who was raised by his grandmother, a Mexican immigrant, is a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights and early childhood education and in 2010, he fought for federal funding to jumpstart green jobs.

“I am not a frontrunner in this race, but I have not been a frontrunner at any time in my life,” Castro told CNN before his official announcement. “My family’s story is a testament to what is possible when this country gets it right.”

The 37-year-old Iraq War veteran, who represents parts of Hawaii in the House of Representatives, announced in January she was running. Gabbard is both the first American Samoan and Hindu member of Congress. An economic progressive and critic of America’s armed interventions abroad, she has faced scrutiny for being socially conservative, according to Vox, though she has reversed some of her positions and is pro-choice and now supports same-sex marriage.

“There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people that I’m concerned about and that I want to help solve,” Gabbard said on The Van Jones Show when she made her announcement. She added that health care, criminal justice reform and climate change would be key issues in her campaign.

The 37-year-old Democratic mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced his camapign in late January. He enters as one of the first openly LGTBQ candidates to ever run for the presidency under a major party.

His announcement came in a tweet along with an introductory video where Buttigieg touched on his generational identity as a millennial and a campaign based on “walking away from the politics of the past.”

Though a presumptive longshot, given his low national profile, Buttigieg’s Midwestern roots have possible cache after President Trump narrowly won the 2016 election thanks to victories in Michigan, Pennsylvania nad Wisconsin.

Buttigieg is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, serving in the Navy throughout his deployment. He was born and raised in South Bend, CNN reports. He continued on to Harvard University and later became a consultant at McKinsey.

Williamson, a 66-year-old self-help author, announced she was running for president in late January — “to engage voters in a more meaningful conversation about America, about our history, about how each of us fit into it and how to create a sustainable future,” she said.

That conventional rhetoric belies how unconventional Williamson is as a “major” candidate, which she now is according to the political analysis website FiveThirtyEight.

Williamson, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, has no traditional political, business or military experience. Any path forward will be steep against challengers such as former Vice President Joe Biden.

Williamson’s policy platform broadly aligns with the Democratic mainstream, including proposals to combat man-made climate change, reform gun laws and provide universal health care

The senator from New Jersey announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president on Feb. 1, releasing a video on his website.

Outlining his intentions, the 49-year-old said, “I grew up knowing that the only way we can make change is when people come together.”

Booker — a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School — was elected as mayor of Newark, New Jersey, in 2006, serving until he was elected to the Senate and assumed office in 2013.

The Minnesota Democrat had a fatefully dramatic announcement in mid-February as snow fell all around.

A three-term senator, Klobuchar, 58, is widely popular in her state. Pundits view her candidacy as viable thanks to her Midwestern background, as Democrats lost the presidency in 2016 by razor-thin margins in a few Midwestern states

But Klobuchar has also recently stirred a larger national profile — in part thanks to her questioning last year of then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing amid his sexual misconduct allegations, which he denied.

Klobuchar has said she is in support of universal health care, combatting climate change and expanding voter registration access.

“For too long, leaders in Washington have sat on the sidelines while others try to figure out what to do about our changing economy and its impact on our lives, what to do about the disruptive nature of new technologies, income inequality, the political and geographic divides, the changing climate, the tumult in our world,” she said at her announcement, continuing:

“Let’s stop seeing those obstacles as obstacles on our path. Let’s see those obstacles as our path.”

In mid-February, Sanders, 77, announced he would again seek the Democratic nomination for president having lost in 2016 to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Sanders, a longtime indepedent senator from Vermont who often votes with Democrats, re-enters a world of presidential politics vastly different than his last campaign, in large part thanks to him.

Since launching a underdog effort four years ago which quickly found national support, many of Sanders’ policies — such as universal health care and free public college — have become central liberal proposals.

“We began the political revolution in the 2016 campaign and now it’s time to move the revolution forward and make sure that vision, those ideas, are implemented into policy,” Sanders said in announcing he would run again.

The mayor of a mid-sized South Florida city (and former college football star), the 44-year-old Messam’s platform covers many key Democratic priorities, including gun reform and efforts to fight climate change, lower student debt and curb healthcare spending. But he argues that his outsider’s status as a local politician is a boon, not a hindrance.

“Washington is not working for the American people, and these big issues need fresh eyes and bold ideas from someone closer to the people,” Messam, the son of Jamaican immigrants, says on his campaign website.

He announced he was running for president in March.

He underlined his position on student debt in his announcement video, saying, “Every day people are graduating from universities with crippling debt stifling their opportunity for financial mobility; that is what’s broken with this country.”

The longtime senator from Delaware-turned-presidential candidate-turned-running mate and vice president announced his campaign on April 25 with a video message.

“We are in the battle for the soul of this nation. I believe history will look back on four years of this president and all he embraces as an aberrant moment in time. But If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation, who we are, and I cannot stand by and watch that happen,” Biden said.

Biden, 76, served as former President Barack Obama‘s right-hand man for two terms and enters a crowded field of Democratic candidates as the immediate frontrunner in name recognition and most polling, even if his age and historically more moderate voting record put him at odds with the party’s progressive wing.

Though he skipped the 2016 race after the death of son Beau, Biden hasn’t hidden his weighing of a 2020 bid. But his candidacy is not without controversy after he acknowledged that some of his physical behavior, including touching women on the back or kissing their forehead without asking, left them uncomfortable.

In a subsequent video, he said, “I worked my whole life to empower women. So the idea that I can’t adjust to the fact that personal space is important, more important than it’s ever been, is just not thinkable. I will.”

A 54-year-old Democratic senator from Colorado, Bennet announced on May 2 that he was running for president while appearing on CBS This Morning. 

“I have a tendency to tell the truth to the people I represent in Colorado and I want a chance to do that with the American people,” he said.

According to CNN, Bennet’s announcement was delayed by his prostate cancer diagnosis in April and subsequent treatment, including a successful operation. 

“It was very clarifying,” he said on CBS of his diagnosis. Then he pivoted back to health care, which Democrats see as a key vulnerability given President Trump’s persistent attempts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

According to the New York Times, Bennet, a moderate, is “known for his work on education and immigration reform.”

Steyer, a billionaire investor, Democratic donor and activist, announced on July 9 that he would run for president and reportedly plans to spend $100 million — or more — on his race.

“Almost every single major intractable problem, at the back of it, you see a big money interest for whom stoping progress, stoping justice, is really important to their bottom line,” he said in his announcement video. He focused on issues of economic inequality and widespread corporate dysfunction in public life.

Before entering the race, Steyer had most recently generated headlines as a loud voice for President Trump’s impeachment

Patrick, a 63-year-old former governor of Massachusetts, announced on Nov. 14 that he would seek the Democratic nomination for president — coming months later than his dozen-plus competitors and with only about three months left to establish himself on the campaign trail before primary voting begins.

“I’ve been waiting for a moment like this my whole life,” he said on CBS This Morning. “I don’t mean a moment to run for president but a moment when the appetite for big ideas is big enough for the size of the challenges we face in America.”     

Explaining his policy positions on CBS, Patrick aligned with most liberal politicians in supporting expanding health care access — but not, notably, “Medicare for all” — as well as tackling student debt in a sweeping way and increasing taxes on the wealthy.

“The anger and anxiety that I hear about and I read about and I see and I witness and listen to in all kind of corners of the country today is familiar to me for the same reasons, having grown up on the South Side of Chicago, the sense that the economy just kind of gets up and kicks you to the curb,” Patrick said.      

The former new York City mayor officially announced his presidential bid on Nov. 24, writing: “I’m running for president to defeat Donald Trump and rebuild America. We cannot afford four more years of President Trump’s reckless and unethical actions.”

A three-term mayor of N.Y.C., Bloomberg, 77, has been both a Republican and Democrat and is seen as many observers as a more centrist candidate, compared to progressives such Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Bloomberg has also been a fierce advocate for reform to prevent gun violence.

He is reportedly willing to spend freely from his billion-dollar fortune, amassed as the head of an eponymous financial and media company, to support his candidacy.

Still, he faces a steep — possibly impossible — challenge to winning the nomination, given that he entered the race with only months before voting began.

In a highly unsual move, Trump actually began running for re-election before he was sworn-in for his first term. According to the Washington Post, he was spending money on 2020 efforts as early as Nov. 24, 2016.

The president’s surprising win in 2016 has made the pundit class conflicted about predictions for re-election, though the common arguments against Trump include his historically low approval rating, even though presidents are much more often re-elected than not.

As the New York Times detailed in January, Trump may yet face another unusual development: a challenger from within his own party for the Republican nomination. Candidates include former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a longtime Trump critic, and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan.

In February, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who has campaigned as a Libertarian, confirmed he would challenge Trump as a Republican.

In January, Trump boasted to his liberal opponents: “The Democrats know they can’t win based on all of [my] achievements.”

Weld, 73, governed Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997 and while he has campaigned as a libertarian — running for the vice presidency there in 2016 — he switched back to the Republican Party to challenge Trump.

“We cannot sit passively as our precious democracy slips quietly into darkness,” he said in announcing his long-shot bid in February.

“Congress must do its duty and, as citizens, we must do ours,” he said. The Boston Globe described him as an “advocate of free trade, increased immigration, and action to combat climate change,” and he is more socially liberal than many of his Republican colleagues.

An intra-party challenge to a sitting president is not completely unheard of but it is unusual — and unlikely to be successful. Still, Weld said in February the he hopes “to see the Republican Party assume once again the mantle of being the party of Lincoln.”

A 57-year-old former Illinois congressman, Walsh announced in August his long-shot bid to challenge President Trump for the Republican nomination.

“We can’t take four more years of Donald Trump,” Walsh, who became a conservative radio host, wrote on Twitter. “And that’s why I’m running for President.”

An erstwhile Trump supporter who has since changed his tune, Walsh’s announcement drew praise, including former Trump White House official Anthony Scaramucci, but also criticism — including from those who were quick to point back at his Trump-like rhetoric against minorities, liberals and other groups.