Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee, Deval Patrick, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Marianne Williamson, Kamala Harris, and Andrew Yang by Cristian Spariosu and Natalie Valachovic Beto O’Rourke was the long-shot candidate in Texas’s 2018 midterms elections. As a Democrat in deep red and conservative Texas, a tight race for Congress is usually not heard of. But Beto and Ted Cruz had the closest political race in Texas in forty years. Although Beto narro ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee, Deval Patrick, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Marianne Williamson, Kamala Harris by Zachary Coderre and Christina Noeldechen After a long time on the campaign trail, Andrw Yang’s bid for president has come to an end. To call Yang’s presidential candidacy a longshot would be an understatement. Here was a candidate with no government experience, no military experience and a highly unusual campaign message. Given his ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee, Deval Patrick, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Marianne Williamson by Lindsay Nugent and Grace Varcadipane After being elected to serve as California’s junior senator in 2017, Kamala Harris was widely acknowledged as a rising star in the Democratic Party, and as a formidable contender for the 2020 Democratic Nomination. This was especially true after she gained national attention by grilling now-Supreme Court Justic ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee, Deval Patrick, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand by Nick Desautels and Kylie Gilbride Recently, Marianne Williamson was in the news for her endorsement of her former opponent, Bernie Sanders. To many, this means absolutely nothing. Some may even have forgotten that Williamson existed, after her failed presidential campaign, which ended back in January. To a small group, however, this is an important endorsement, and sh ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee, Deval Patrick, Cory Booker by Rachel Clark and Kiley Lenahan After only five months on the campaign trail, Kirsten Gillibrand has dropped out of the race to become the Democratic nominee for president. When it became clear that she would not qualify for the September debate in Houston, her team decided that it would be best to quit while they were ahead. Gillibrand’s lack of success came as a surprise to many New Yor ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee, Deval Patrick by McKenna Donegan and Emma Willette January 13th, forty-five minutes before we were supposed to begin our first day working for New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s presidential campaign, we received the news notification that he had suspended his campaign. Perceived as a prospective presidential candidate during his time as mayor of Newark, even being referred to as “future president” by former Vice Presi ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro, Michael Bennet, Jay Inslee by Matt Powers and Tim Zehr With the departure of many candidates from the 2020 presidential race, the questions regarding most of the drop-outs are what the hell went wrong, why did they enter the race in the first place, and did they really think they had a chance of winning or did they just want clout? In the case of Deval Patrick, all of these questions apply, as his campaign lasted for less than three months, whi ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro, Michael Bennet by Sami DeRagon and Sam Hearn Jay Inslee kicked off his Presidential Campaign on March 1, 2019. Prior to running for President, Jay Inslee was not a name that a lot of people knew and, honestly, now that his campaign is over, he’s still far from a household name. Jay Inslee has what seems to be the perfect resume and ability to connect with voters for someone who successfully runs for President. He spent his first year of coll ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. See our other campaign postmortem posts: Julián Castro by Kyle Creech and Nick DiScala Michael Bennet announced on May 2, 2019, that he was entering the race to become the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. Michael Bennet is currently the sitting senior United States Senator from Colorado, a position he has held since 2009. Before Sen. Bennet’s time in Congress, he was also the Superintendent for the Denver Public School Systems, whose population is three times larger than a cert ..read more

Editor’s Note: This post is the first part in a series examining failed 2020 candidacies. by Chrissy DeMarco and Dana Wakeman Julián Castro has been a standout in Democratic politics for many years since he was the first Hispanic to give the keynote address at the DNC, and was even considered as a running mate for Hillary Clinton. However, he was unable to generate sufficient support with the electorate and suspended his campaign after failing to qualify for the Democratic debates. Castro separated himself as a progressive, candidate of color who represents the antithesis of not only ..read more