20 Democrats who are likely to run in 2020

16. Martin O’Malley

Martin O’Malley is no stranger to the contest for presidential nominee. The former governor of Maryland announced his run for the Democratic nomination in May 2015. However, eight months later and with a third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, O’Malley dropped out of the race.

After all that, however, O’Malley might pop up again in the lead up to the 2020 elections.

Why, though? Frankly, O’Malley was so under the radar in the 2016 that many thought it was as if he hadn’t tried in the first place. No one at the DNC became a delegate for him, he got less than 1% of the vote in the Iowa caucus, and chances are good that you’ve heard next to nothing about him in the past couple of years.

Yet the Democratic Party in general is in flux. So, too, is our entire political system. The stalwarts and standbys of political parties could be losing their previous power. More specifically, they might not be the path to the nomination that they once were.

O’Malley, meanwhile, has apparently been doing quite a lot of traveling and speech making lately. He might be going for a method that appeals more to potential voters than Democratic leaders, meaning that he could potentially gain traction in early polls and caucuses, which could then translate into the desired-for nomination.

Now, is this exactly what Martin O’Malley wants? He’s definitely demonstrated interest in the job before, though neither has he made any official statements. Then again, a PAC affiliated with him has been making the rounds in Iowa (the same state where he placed third in the 2016 caucus) and he’s made a significant visit to New Hampshire, another perennial swing state.