The Crowded Democratic Field: Who Should Be In? Who Should Be Out?

The Crowded Democratic Presidential Field: Who should be in? Who should be out?

The 2020 Democratic Presidential nominee field is extremely crowded. With the New Hampshire Primary, Iowa Caucus in the books, and Super Tuesday a few weeks away, allow me to separate the contenders from the pretenders. Your clear cut contenders are Pete Buttigieg, and Bernie Sanders, who were victorious in Iowa, and New Hampshire respectively. Amy Klobuchar might have saved her Presidential bid after a late surge in New Hampshire.

Though his primary season is off to a rough start, Vice President Biden believes he’s still a viable candidate and I agree for a couple of reasons. Biden, was slightly disappointed by his showing in Iowa however, the Biden campaign was never focused on Iowa and seems to be focused on the Nevada and South Carolina primaries later this month. The former Vice President also believes he will be able to clean up with delegates on Super Tuesday. I'm not counting out Joe Biden. Biden does well among black voters and working class white voters. He also does well with moderate democrats, and independent voters who aren’t enamoured with voting for a self-proclaimed “Democratic Socialist” like Bernie Sanders.

Former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg is spending massive amounts of money so he still has a chance in the race, even though he is polling terribly with black voters.

Quite frankly, there are alot of pretenders. To secure the Democratic nominations a candidate needs 1,991 delegates. Who has a REALISTIC path to the 1,991? Kamala Harris and Cory Booker have already ended their campaigns. As of late last night, Andrew Yang (Sorry Yang Gang) and Michael Bennet have ended their campaigns after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.

They aren’t the only ones that don’t have a realistic path to 1,991. Tulsi Gabbard, the Congresswoman from Hawaii has no realistic path to the nomination and should drop out of the race immediately, the same can be said for Deval Patrick and Tom Steyer. Steyer has plenty of money, but I would expect Deval Patrick to end his campaign as early as tomorrow.

Which brings me to Elizabeth Warren. I think it’s time for Warren to drop out of the race. If Iowa and New Hampshire are any indication, it seems that progressives are supporting Bernie Sanders. For Warren to stay in the race is splitting votes with Bernie and potentially preventing him from getting the amount of delegates needed to secure the nomination. The field has to narrow so that the American people can make a clear decision on who they want to represent the party in a General Election, and so that the candidates can begin designing a campaign that is designed to beat Donald Trump. The longer and uglier this primary season is, the easier it is for Trump to label the Democratic party as unstable, weak, and unfit.