Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* A Monmouth poll released yesterday found former Vice President Joe Biden leading the Democrats’ 2020 presidential field at the national level with 28% support, though Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is right behind him with 25%. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), with 10%, was the only other candidate to reach double digits.
* On a related note, the same poll found that 57% of Americans — not just Democrats, but the public at large — believe it’s time for a new president, while 38% believe Donald Trump should get a second term.
* As Rachel noted toward the end of last night’s show, former Rep. Beto O’Rouke (D-Texas) has scheduled a trip to Iowa for this weekend, which bolsters suspicions that the Texan is gearing up for a presidential campaign.
* On a related note, the official reason for O’Rourke’s Iowa trip is to support Eric Giddens’ (D) campaign in a state Senate special election. Giddens has received quite a bit of support from prospective Democratic presidential candidates. The local election is a week from today.
* It may seem hard to believe but businessman Andrew Yang, who’s running for the Democratic presidential nomination despite never having held elected office, has received campaign contributions from 66,000 donors — which wouldn’t be especially notable except it means Yang has qualified to participate in official DNC 2020 debates. * Speaking of fundraising, former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) received a “significant” financial boost yesterday following his well-received town-hall event on CNN, which aired on Sunday night. * If my inbox is any indication, the question of whether or not Bernie Sanders should be considered a Democrat is a subject of considerable debate, and the Boston Globe published a good piece the other day summarizing the argument. (For the record, I still identify him as an independent senator who caucuses with Democrats because that’s his designation with the office of the Secretary of the Senate.) * And in staffing news, Alycia Albergottie, who oversaw Hillary Clinton’s campaign operation in South Carolina in 2016, is now Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) state director.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
