We are at the end of January and so far it looks to be continuing the pace of 2018 in being overly long and full of bullshit. I think that this month has had 50 days so far. So, with that in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising that we already have Democrats announcing runs for the 2020 Presidential race.

There are, as of today, 4 candidates that have some level of name recognition: former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas and an official in the Obama Administration Julián Castro; New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand; Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren; and California Senator Kamala Harris. But that’s not all! There are other, lesser known candidates including U.S Representative from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard, former West Virginia State Senator Richard Ojeda, former Maryland Representative John Delaney, businessman Andrew Yang and Mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg.

Others who are expected to throw their hats into the ring are former Vice President (and former Senator from my home state of Delaware) Joe Biden; 2016 darling Senator Bernie Sanders; New Jersey Senator Corey Booker; former Texas Representative and 2018 rock star Beto O’Rourke plus 50-11 others. Basically, every Democrat that you might have heard of in the last 2 years. And now it seems that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wants to get in on the fun, but as an independent centrist. Because both sides…of course.  

While it is of course still early in the campaign, one candidate has been getting a good bit of attention, at least on Black Twitter, and that’s Kamala Harris. There are three positions on Senator Harris – Hell No, Hell Yes, and um, I don’t know. I count myself in the last category. I first heard of Senator Harris when she was the Attorney General of California but I didn’t have many details, only that she was the first African-American (her father is from Jamaica), first Indian-American (her mother is from India) and the first woman to hold that position. After she was elected to Senate, I was favorably impressed by her questioning of now former U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions. However, I’ve seen receipts about her tenure as both California Attorney General and San Francisco District Attorney that give me pause.

With this in mind, my question is what, if anything, could Senator Harris do to get doubters on her side? She has lately renounced some of her former stances on issues that are important to left-leaning Democratic voters. Do you think that she can be persuaded to move to the left on these issues or do you not trust her based on her former positions?

As for Elizabeth Warren, will her DNA test be a distraction? To be honest, I wanted Senator Warren to run in 2016, when I would have voted for her. Now though, I still love her economic positions but the wannabe Indian stuff has thrown me off.

I’m not yet ready to decide on who I want to support and since there are sure to be more candidates coming into the race, I have plenty of time to make up my mind. I just hope that with this election, people base their votes on who would be a good president, instead of somebody that would be good to have a beer with. Or because they’re white.