The Atlantic

The 2020 U.S. Presidential Race: A Cheat Sheet

Deval Patrick’s presidential run may be a day late and a few private-equity dollars long.
Source: Brian Snyder / Reuters

If a top requirement for a president is quick decision making, you can’t question Deval Patrick’s qualifications: Just three days after the first reports that he was considering getting into the Democratic race, the former Massachusetts governor officially entered, filing to run in the New Hampshire primary.

Of course, if Patrick had been a bit more decisive, he might have entered the race before mid-November the year before the election. That’s astonishingly late for contemporary presidential campaigns. Gone are the days when Bill Clinton could enter the race in October 1991 and win 13 months later—or when Mario Cuomo could keep a plane waiting on the tarmac in December 1991 and still seem like a real threat. (He opted not to run.)

This gets to some of the challenges that Patrick faces. Democratic mega-donors are clearly not satisfied with their party’s field: There’s Joe Biden, whom many of them love, but they fear he is a weak front-runner; there are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, whom the donors either fear or think can’t win a general election, or both; and Pete Buttigieg, interesting but untested. These jittery nerves are behind recent entries by Patrick and Michael Bloomberg, as well as the literally incredible claim that there are “many, many, many people” clamoring for another Hillary Clinton candidacy. But it’s not clear that the mass of Democratic voters share any similar enthusiasm for new candidates, much less these particular ones.

Patrick’s greatest asset might be his friendship with Barack Obama—but Obama has remained quiet in the primary, and Biden has already moved to claim the Obama mantle as his own. Patrick didn’t help his case by taking a job at Bain Capital after leaving the Bay State governor’s mansion. Obama rather famously defeated a Bain alum and former Massachusetts governor in the 2012 election, while demonizing that opponent’s experience in business. (Don’t worry; Mitt Romney was eventually able to procure gainful employment.)

You can expect to hear quite a bit about Bain from Patrick’s new rivals in the Democratic field. And they’ll turn up other dirt on him too. Already on Thursday, a story from June is circulating about Patrick’s former brother-in-law. In 2014, then-Governor Patrick fired the head of the Massachusetts Sex Offender Registry Board after she questioned why his brother-in-law, a convicted rapist, wasn’t required to register. In 2017, he once again committed rape. It’s a reminder that the scrutiny a governor faces is nothing like what a national candidate can expect.

Patrick is viewed in the Obama orbit, my colleague Edward-Isaac Dovere writes, as a preternaturally gifted politician and speaker, like the 44th president. But it’s hard to believe that will be enough to vault him to the top of the Democratic field, especially now. Obama, you may recall, launched his 2008 campaign in February 2007.

“I recognize running for president is a Hail Mary under any circumstances,” Patrick told The Boston Globe. “This is a Hail Mary from two stadiums over.” You can’t fault his realism, either.

As the primaries progress, this cheat sheet will be updated regularly.

The Democrats


DEVAL PATRICK

Who is he?
Patrick was governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015, after serving in a top role in Bill Clinton’s Justice Department. More recently, he’s worked at Bain Capital.

Is he running?
Yes. Patrick officially entered the race on November 14.

Why does he want to run?
To be president, of course. But having passed on a run earlier, Patrick reconsidered because of worries that no one in the Democratic field has strong momentum and can unite the party.

Who wants him to run?
There’s an appetite for new candidates among some in the Democratic donor class, though there’s little sign that voters are so eager. Patrick is close to Barack Obama, but the former president has stayed out of the primary.

We’re not saying a former Massachusetts governor and Bain employee can’t win the presidency, but recent. But : “I recognize running for president is a Hail Mary under any circumstances. This is a Hail Mary from two stadiums over.”

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