Al Franken for President in 2020? A registered Super-PAC group hopes to make it so.
Minneapolis, Minnesota Republican President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t yet been inaugurated, but that isn’t stopping Democrats from proposing presidential contenders for the 2020 election. The Hill reports some of the names bandied about have been Vice President Joe Biden, 2016 presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton’s running-mate, Tim Kaine, and Minnesota Senator Al Franken.
In a new survey by Public Policy Polling Al Franken garnered 3% support for a presidential run from the democrats surveyed. The potential candidates receiving the most support were VP Joe Biden (31%) and Bernie Sanders (24%).
However, according to a November article by TheWrap.com, Franken has already rejected the idea of a 2020 presidential run. In a statement to TheWrap, Franken’s office said, “Sen. Franken is not going to run for President in 2020. He will, however, spend the next several years fighting on behalf of Minnesota families — working on issues like income inequality, education, college affordability, health care, equal rights, and on behalf of consumers and small businesses.”
That hasn’t stopped a group from forming a PAC in support of a potential Franken presidential run. The new Super-PAC, “Draft Al Franken 2020” was started by a 23 year old graduate student named Nick Butler, just hours after Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in November. Butler, who is studying education policy and leadership at the University of Albany, believes that Franken could carry the white, blue-collar voters who shifted to Trump in 2016, but also appeal to younger voters as a more hip, younger Bernie Sanders. Franken’s ties to Hollywood also gives him the ability to fundraise in a way that many other candidates may not have.
TheWrap reported:
Franken also has more political experience than Trump — and many Democrats already being bandied about as possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. By 2020, he will have served two terms in the Senate. He has spent the last eight years establishing himself as a public servant, not an entertainer.
“For the first few years in the Senate, he would refuse to make a joke,” Butler told TheWrap. “He showed that he wasn’t a joke.”
Butler has never worked with Franken and said “he isn’t even accepting money for his Super PAC until it can ramp up efforts to draft Franken.” (TheWrap)
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Andrea Mayer-Bruestle
Andrea Mayer-Bruestle is a former writer for Alpha News.
