Every Dem wants Obama's 2020 endorsement - but Biden and Harris the top contenders likely to get it

[DonViejo]

Every Democrat wants Barack Obama’s 2020 endorsement – but Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are likely the top contenders to get it

PUBLISHED 17 MIN AGO
Jeff Daniels
@JEFFDANIELSCA

KEY POINTS

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and former Vice President Joe Biden look like the most likely candidates for former President Barack Obama’s endorsement in the 2020 presidential campaign.

Harris and Biden have had long and fruitful relationships with Obama.

Veteran Democrats, including some who worked on Obama campaigns, believe the former president won’t endorse a particular 2020 contender until the primary process is further along.

A huge question of the 2020 campaign centers is who former President Barack Obama will endorse.

A primary field including both Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and former Vice President Joe Biden could make the choice especially tricky since they would likely be the top contenders for his backing.

Harris, a first-term senator who also served as California’s attorney general, declared her candidacy for president Monday, while Biden, himself a longtime former senator, has yet to decide whether to launch a campaign.

Harris and Biden have had long and fruitful relationships with Obama. The former two-term president would arguably end up the biggest supporter of a Biden 2020 run, but Obama also counts Harris as a loyal ally. Harris was San Francisco district attorney when she threw her support behind Obama’s presidential run in early 2007 — a time when many other elected politicians in the nation’s most populous state backed then-frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

With other Obama political allies likely to enter the 2020 presidential race, though, many Democratic strategists believe the former president won’t rush into endorsing anyone.

more
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/barack-obama-2020-endorsement-joe-biden-kamala-harris-top-contenders.html