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These Surprising Democrats Wanted to Run for President in 2024

With the next Presidential race just around the corner in 2024, picking the nomination for the Republican party would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Two fish to be precise. The 46th and current governor of Florida Ron DeSantis whose support from the right is growing with every passing and, of course, the former President Donald Trump who wants a second shot at the White House despite being bogged down by several legal quagmires.

When it comes to the Democratic Candidates for President in 2024, the field is wide open. With Biden not exactly committing himself to run in two years’ time, a recent poll showed that 26 percent of Democrats wanted Biden to be their nominee in 2024, while 64 percent preferred ‘someone else.’ But who might that ‘someone else’ be? Who are the other candidates standing at the start line waiting for the pistol to fire and signal the start of a new race to the Oval Office?

Here we take a look at the top ten candidates vying to be the next Democratic candidate to run for and ultimately secure the Presidency in 2024 in a battle most likely against Donald J Trump.

democratic candidate
Photo by lev radin from Shutterstock

1. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Serving as the U.S. representative for New York’s 14th congressional district since 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (or AOC) has made herself quite the darling of the progressive left with her support for policies such as Medicare for All, tuition-free public college, and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to name a few.

As the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress, it would seem unlikely that she would make a run for the top job at just 32. However, with her recently declining to say whether she’ll back Biden in 2024 has many eyebrows raised as to whether this is an indication that she plans to seek the nomination herself. Only time will tell.

2. Roy Cooper

Cooper served as the 49th attorney general of North Carolina for a considerable amount of time, from 2001 to 2017, before (reluctantly if the reports are to be believed) running for governor of North Carolina and defeating incumbent Republican Pat McCrory. In true modern Republican parlance, McCrory of course cried foul, claiming the election had been manipulated by voter fraud. When the recount was finished, Cooper had won by even more.

His apparent hesitance to run for governor might be an indicator that he is not quite ready to take that next step toward the Presidency. Democratic strategists seem to think otherwise as they are pushing him as a candidate who knows how to win. Cooper has consistently and repeatedly secured victory in a state carried by Republican presidential nominees, including in the same election.

3. Gretchen Whitmer

Although not as famous a name as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michigan’s 49th governor Gretchen Whitmer certainly shares AOC’s unwillingness to lend their support for Biden should he choose to run in 2024. Elected governor in the 2018 gubernatorial election, the potential Democratic candidate would crush her Republican opponent, Attorney General Bill Schuette, by nearly a 10-point margin.

And the wild ride for Whitmer didn’t stop there. On October 8, 2020, the FBI arrested 13 men (one more was detained a week later) from a paramilitary militia group calling themselves the Wolverine Watchmen who were plotting to kidnap Whitmer and violently overthrow the state government. She faces a tight race against the Republican nominee Tudor Dixon in this swing state. However, if she can secure a second term by winning the 2022 Michigan gubernatorial election, a run for the White House is not an impossibility.

democratic candidate
Photo by Jana Asenbrennerova from Shutterstock

4. Gavin Newsom

Newsom had a lot to contend with in the last few years as he faced criticism for his personal behavior and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic while serving as the 40th Governor of California. This prompted a recall election in 2021 to remove him from office. This failed, as Newsom easily won, as 61.88 percent of the voters in California wanted him to stay.

Newsom knows how to win and win big. Elected as the 42nd mayor of San Francisco in 2003 at just 36 years old, when it came to his reelection in 2007, he would win by securing a staggering 72% of the vote. Newsom himself hasn’t come out and stated that he plans to run for the White House, but his recent actions suggest otherwise. The potential Democratic candidate released an advert that took direct aim at Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis which suggested to many political observers that Newsom sees DeSantis as his likely rival in 2024, so he’s getting a few early blows in.

5. Bernie Sanders

The reliable old guard of the left and Senator from Vermont, the self-identifying democratic socialist Bernie Sanders is no stranger to seeking the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States. In 2016 and 2020, he was unsuccessful as he finished in second place in both campaigns, losing to Clinton and Biden respectively. At 80 years old it would seem to be unlikely that Sanders would be thinking third time a charm, but a memo released on April 20, 2022, might suggest otherwise.

Sanders’s 2020 campaign team sent a message to his supporters informing them that Sen. Sanders has not ruled out another run for president. Sanders himself had stated recently that he was ‘very, very unlikely’ to ever run again, but with the leaking of this memo and the fact that Politico reported that Sanders himself had approved it, we might just see the independent senator from Vermont once again run for the highest office in the land.

6. Elizabeth Warren

Becoming the first female U.S. senator from Massachusetts when she defeated incumbent Republican Scott Brown in 2012, Warren would win reelection in a landslide, defeating her Republican opponent, Geoff Diehl, and showing the Democratic party faithful that she can win big. She has already dipped her toes into the Democratic nomination waters when she announced her candidacy in the 2020 United States presidential election, briefly being considered the front-runner, but her campaign support soon went down the drain.

However, recently, with the overturning of Roe vs Wade, the democratic Warren is back front and center on the political stage as she continues to fight for the reproductive rights of women across the nation. She did come close to the White House when she was among the top four vice-presidential choices for Joe Biden, but that job would ultimately go to Senator Kamala Harris. Warren said she’s running for reelection and not president, but in a post-Roe vs Wade America, she might want to throw her hat back in the ring.

7. Amy Klobuchar

Serving as the senior United States senator from Minnesota since 2007 and the state’s first female senator, Amy Klobuchar recently became the chair of the Senate Rules Committee. Back in 2009, she was seen as a rising star of the Democratic Party and this lawyer would not disappoint. By the end of the 114th Congress in late 2016, she had passed more legislation than any other senator and by the end of 2018, she was responsible for sponsoring or co-sponsoring 111 pieces of legislation that became law.

Although Klobuchar has proven herself to be a very effective lawmaker, many see her political positions as very similar to Biden’s as she is also pro-choice on abortion and supports LGBT rights and the Affordable Care Act. She did briefly make a run for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and, like our previous entry, Elizabeth Warren was considered for the position of Vice President. Should Biden choose not to run in 2024, many of his supporters are likely to get behind Klobuchar instead.

democratic candidate
Photo by lev radin from Shutterstock

8. Kamala Harris

The 49th vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, is no stranger to firsts. Currently serving as the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, the first African American and first Asian American vice president, this former attorney general of California has seen her popularity dwindle since she was inaugurated on January 20, 2021, alongside President Joe Biden.

Many have also questioned her temperament as her office has seen high staff turnovers that included her chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, press secretary, deputy press secretary, communications director, and chief speechwriter. With fifteen former vice presidents having ascended to the presidency, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Harris could seek to be the sixteenth. However, the potential Democratic candidate would need a drastic overhaul of her public persona to garner the sort of support needed to take her to the top job.

9. Pete Buttigieg

Currently serving as the 19th United States Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg became one of the first openly gay men to launch a major party presidential campaign when he ran as a candidate for president in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Although he dropped out of the race and endorsed Joe Biden the following day, since then he has gained a reputation as a politician able to go on Fox News and combat the right’s talking points in a calm and steady manner.

If Trump should seek to run again in 2024, or even if he didn’t and DeSantis ends up as the Republican party’s preferred candidate, having a cool, calm, and collected opponent to the ever-increasingly hostile rhetoric coming from the right, many would see Buttigieg as a candidate they could get behind. A recent poll backed that up as Buttigieg polled higher than President Biden as a potential 2024 White House hopeful. Buttigieg however, continues to deflect any talk of another White House run.

10. Joe Biden

The 46th and current president of the United States, Joe Biden, has seen his popularity rebound a little after taking a bit of a nose dive in the last years. With a few legislative successes in recent weeks, the Biden administration is hoping the number will slowly creep back up. With Biden consistently saying that he intends to run for a second term, he will need his job approval ratings to be much higher than the less-than-impressive 38 percent it currently stands at.

With Biden salvaging his domestic policy agenda, fuel prices going down, good news on inflation, and an economy that looks to be bouncing back, his chances of serving a second term have been given a real shot in the arm.

If you’re interested in learning more about how democracy works in America, here’s an easy-to-read book that has a lot of information.

You may also want to read These US Elections Were Even Stranger Than Trump’s.

31 Responses

    1. Hey, it was ruined by Trump. Once again the Democrats are left to clean up the mess left a previous GOP administration. But that’s OK. We’re good at cleaning up.

      1. You mean it was rebounded by Trump, until his controversial defeat brought in a complete imbecile that doesn’t know his own name or what day it is. Biden did more damage to this country the first 48 hours in office than any other president in history did in an entire term. Anyone who would vote for him again, or anyone else on this list for that matter, should seriously have their head examined.

  1. I’m so glad you boys and girls in the billionairs club are having such a good time with the money from the less fortunate. Notice, I used the word fortune? When comes the time that we have respectable candidates that are there for the people? I don’t see anyone one either side of the isle. When will the grab ass games from the powerful who are truly bored from having so much? It will really be a boring time when no one can be there to torment and starve. Gentlemen and Ladies, I hope someday your pockets become full enough.

    1. Are you kidding ?? I hope we never again experience the corruption , disgraceful womanizing, the terrible damaging lies, and violence that we had previously experience during the Trump era. wich still have this country in such a divided turmoil

    2. Really you really thing FAT DONNIE THE CON MAN should be president again . he the biggest crook of all time .how much of a sucker are u . we don’t need a dictator

  2. Quite a list: A former barmaid.
    A current governor with the nations highest income tax, highest sales taxes, who was almost recalled, who just passed a pro-abortion law setting up an organization to help out women who wanted abortions but cannot afford them, and including/inviting teenage girls to visit those clinics without parental consent, and inviting teenagers from other states to come to California to get their abortions.
    A homosexual who would set one heck of historical first by being the first to live in the White House with his husband, and I now understand with an adopted child.
    A Vice President who doesn’t seen to know if she’s coming or going,or what day of the week she’s living in. And, with a popularity rating in the 20’s.
    A sworn socialist who has never had a job outside of “public service” and who is a sworn socialist who owns 3 mansions. Also, has a wife who was convicted of fraud when she was president of a college.
    And, finally, a good-for-nothing current “President” who does not know what he’s doing and how to run a country. Cannot get his facts straight when giving an off-the-cuff speech or interview, has the money printing presses working overtime making our money worth less and less, causing goods to be prices sky-high. AND, who has broken into our strategic oil reserves that are being saved for use in case of war or some other drastic emergency, and sold first 950,000 barrels of oil to China from the reserve, and then, very quietly sold another three million barrels to them. And who was the middle man in all of these sales? None other than HUNTER BIDEN.
    Democrats have an excellent list of candidates. Can’t wait for 2024 so I can vote for one of them.

    1. OK, now go look in the mirror, dudette. Your negatives are ridiculous. trump is the reason this country is in the absolute mess it is. trump and magagas like you. Sad.

    2. Glad you feel that way. Any one of them would be head-and-shoulders better than any of the current crop of neo-Nazi GOPers, i.e., Trump, DeSantis, Abbott, etc., who are being considered.

  3. There are some good potential candidates here. I hope that Warren and Sanders don’t run as we’ve been there, heard that. Klobuchar, Buitegieg and Newsome would be strong, and Amy and Gavin have lots of good experience.

  4. I love AOC. I love her passion and her integrity. I love her kindness. There is too much cruelty and selfishness in America. She is a breath of light.

  5. It scares me and should scare every red blooded American that we still have people who support the new Demoratic party…THEY will be the downfall of this great country!

  6. These people are all jokes. Unelectable, most have run before and could not get enough support to get off the ground and the rest are wishy washy at best, try again with some honest people instead of the flakes.

  7. TRUMP WILL “TROUNCE,” ANY DEMORAT, WHO RUNS AGAINST HIM. BUT, I SURE WOULD LIKE TO SEE A REMATCH WITH HILLARY, IT WAS A GREAT SHOW LAST TIME, AND THIS TIME WOULD BE A “BLAST” I’M SURE. MAKE FOR GOOD TV “DRAMA”, AS THIS IS WHAT HILLARY IS A, {DRAMA QUEEN}!

  8. I can’t believe that a man twice impeached, who only got off because his party covered for him, and who is facing indictment for fomenting the Jan 6th insurrection PLUS a civil suit for tax fraud, can get the nomination for President again. He still has his core support of people who will vote for him no matter what he does, but it may not be enough this time. The rejection of most of the candidates he endorsed in the Midterms means something, I think. He is in too much trouble to be thinking about running again, but he just calls it a witch hunt & goes on with his plans. No one is above the law. If he is convicted & sentenced to imprisonment, he brought it on himself.

  9. In the abstract, it seems that anyone with the potential to be a true statesman will probably not run, because there is so much corruption that a true statesman would want no part of it, or see any hope of effective change as futile.
    But someone has to run, & we citizens have a responsibility to our democracy to vote, despite everything. I wonder if Mike Pence would be a good President. A Vice-President has to be loyal & support the President, but I wonder what his true opinions are. When it came down to it, he defied Trump & the results of the 2020 election were certified. Biden won & all of Trump’s claims of election fraud are bogus, as evidenced by all his lawsuits being dismissed for lack of any real evidence. Pence at least has held office in Indiana & has some experience, which Trump never had. I will be watching with interest to see how the candidacies shake down in both parties. I pray God gives us good leadership. We sorely need it.

    1. I live in Indiana and can tell you that Pence stinks! He was happy that Trump ask him to be on the ticket because he knew he would not win re-election as Governor or Indiana. He pushed all of his religious beliefs on Indiana residents. Indiana sits near the bottom in education, health care, teacher pay and is just now going up a little in employee wages. Pence backed Trump even when he knew Trump was wrong. It wasn’t until it came right down to insurrection, did he take a stand. This man was trying to get into the White House on someone else’s coat tails. It was not until he finally saw how totally insane Trump was that he stood up. So, Bruce, unless you want to see another “Dictator” as president, choose someone else.

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