20 Democrats who are likely to run in 2020

19. Terry McAuliffe

As the governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018, McAuliffe is familiar with relatively high level politics. He’s also a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, not to mention a well-connected friend of Hillary and Bill Clinton, among other Democratic notables. Will that be a boon or a drawback for a presidential run?

After 2016, friends like the Clintons might be something of a mixed bag. The United States seems, more than ever, to be devoted to partisanship and political extremes. Maybe that’s an overstatement, but McAuliffe seems at least to be spending time making more progressive connections.

In the lead up to this year’s midterm elections, McAuliffe spent a considerable amount of his time traveling to states and stumping for other Democratic candidates. It’s worth noting that McAuliffe spent part of that time this year in Iowa, a state that has proven vital to presidential hopefuls for quite some time.

Like many others who could step into the fray come 2020, McAuliffe has played rather coy. In a tweet published on September 3, he wrote: “People want to talk 2020, I say forget it. Let’s focus on 2018.” Some take that as an outright statement, but others aren’t so sure. Was McAuliffe talking about his own speculative run? Was he angling himself as a supporter of fellow Democrats only?

If he does choose to run, voters will want to hear more about his progressive stances. These include his work to expand Medicaid while he was governor. During that same tenure, McAuliffe worked to restore voting rights to about 200,000 felons, though an initial mistake that included 132 sex offenders could come back to hurt him.