uckle up for the crowded 2020

Democratic race. Here's an early

guide
By DOYLE MCMANUS

FEB 24, 2019 | 3:00 AM

| WASHINGTON

Sen. Kamala Harris speaks at a town hall meeting at the Brookland Health and Wellness Center in Columbia, S.C., on
Feb. 16. (Logan Cyrus / For The Times)

The Democratic presidential campaign is likely to be the most crowded in

decades, with 10 major candidates so far and more on the way. How’s a poor
voter to tell them apart?

One easy shortcut is race, gender and geography — but that’s mostly just for
pundits trying to handicap the race.
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California’s Sen. Kamala Harris, for example, should do well among African
American voters in South Carolina, an early primary state. Sen. Amy
Klobuchar of Minnesota sees fertile ground in neighboring Iowa, the first
caucus state.

Democrats looking beyond identity politics want a candidate they can fall in
love with — especially one who can beat President Trump in the general
election. How are they to choose?
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One natural starting point is policy as the candidates stake out positions on
major issues.

As in most years, the Democratic field ranges from moderate to progressive —

from relative centrists Klobuchar and former Vice President Joe Biden (if he
gets in) to Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of
Vermont on the left, with others in between.

But the details of policy may not be as helpful this time.

There’s not a vast gulf between the candidates on major issues such as taxes
and healthcare. They all want to raise taxes on the wealthy. They all want to
move toward universal health insurance.

Judging from this year’s cast, the Democrats are a purely liberal party now, a
term once so loaded that candidates ran away from the L-word.

Even moderates now are well to the left of where Bill Clinton stood when he
won the presidency in 1992. Clinton called for a crackdown on crime and
stricter work requirements for welfare.

In that, the current candidates are following the voters. Last month, the
Gallup Poll reported that a record high 51% of Democratic voters describe
themselves as “liberal,” up from 30% in 2001.

“The Democratic Party has moved more decidedly to the left than any time in
modern history,” historian Robert Dallek told me. “The issues they’re debating
now — ‘Medicare for all,’ a $15 minimum wage — are the issues Bernie
Sanders put on the table four years ago.”

Still, there’s one clear dividing line this year: the difference between radicals
and reformers.
Every Democratic candidate agrees that the nation’s economic system hasn’t
worked for the middle class and those struggling further down. But they offer
different explanations.

On the left, Sanders and Warren charge that the system is “rigged,” and they
want to overturn it. They blame billionaires, including the Wall Street tycoons
who financed Hillary Clinton and other Democratic nominees.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, left, speaks in Dallas last week. Sen. Corey Booker, right, announces his candidacy Feb. 1 in
Newark, N.J. (AP, AFP/Getty Images)

Candidates such as Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kirsten Gillibrand of
New York sound more like traditional reformers. To them, the system isn’t
working and they want to fix it. The main problem, in their view, is Trump.

Even when the Democrats agree on goals, they disagree on how far to go and
how fast. Health insurance may be the clearest litmus test.

Sanders has drafted a “Medicare for all” bill that would cover every American
with government-administered health insurance and virtually eliminate
private insurers.

Warren, Harris and Booker have endorsed the bill — but all have suggested
they might soften its provisions, especially on private insurance.

Another common goal is free tuition at public universities, also a Sanders

proposal from 2016. Warren, Harris and Gillibrand have endorsed the idea,
but don’t agree on how to pay for it.

But Klobuchar, who calls herself “a pragmatic progressive,” says it’s too
expensive. “If I was a magic genie and could give that to everyone … I would,”
she said Tuesday.

There are differences on priorities too.

Harris and Booker have emphasized subsidies for low-income workers.

Gillibrand has focused on universal, federally paid family leave for anyone
who needs to care for a child or parent, financed by payroll taxes.
Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is expected to join the fray, says he wants to
restore “the dignity of work.” Beto O’Rourke, a former lawmaker from Texas,
hasn’t settled on a theme or even whether he’s running.

And there are differences in tone. All the candidates promise to take Trump
down, but their styles of combat vary.

“The American public wants a fighter,” says Harris, a former prosecutor.

Warren answers Trump’s taunts of “Pocahontas” with gibes in return.

Booker has taken the opposite tack. He says he can overcome Trump with a
campaign calling for unity and “love.” (Although, he admitted recently, “Love
ain’t easy.”)

Democratic voters tell pollsters that they’re looking for two things.

One is electability — someone who will defeat Trump. Unfortunately, no one

knows how to measure that enviable quality in advance.

The other is new faces. In a recent USA Today/Suffolk University poll, the
option that attracted the most support was “someone entirely new.”

That suggests a path for a newcomer who can bridge the party’s two wings — a
candidate like Booker, Brown, Harris or O’Rourke.

But we won’t know until they’re tested in debates, town halls, primaries and
caucuses.

We complain about the wearying length of our campaigns, but it’s a good thing
this one started so early. We’re going to need the time to sort all these
characters out.

Politics Newsletter
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Analysis and breaking news from our award-winning journalists in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
Doyle McManus
CONTACT

Doyle McManus is a Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times and director of the journalism program at
Georgetown University. During his long career at The Times, he has been a foreign correspondent in the Middle East,
a White House correspondent and a presidential campaign reporter, and was the paper’s Washington bureau chief
from 1996 to 2008. McManus, a native of San Francisco, has lived in Washington, D.C., since 1983 but still considers
Hermosa Beach his spiritual home.

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