Republicans Target Trump Challengers for 2020 Including a MN Politician

Donald, Trump, Rally, Iowa, 2020
President Donald Trump speaking at a Make America Great Again Rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Image Credit: Preya Samsundar/Alpha News)

WASHINGTON D.C. — Eight months into President Donald Trump’s term many are already looking ahead to what the future could hold in the 2020 presidential elections.

Already, one candidate has announced his bid on the Democratic ticket in 2020. Maryland Rep. John Delaney announced late in July that he would run for president in 2020 according to CNN. Delaney, 54, is a three-term moderate Democrat, who is the first of either political party to announce a run against Trump.

Meanwhile, the White House and Republican National Committee are focused on more fierce candidates that potentially pose a threat to Trump’s job in 2020.

POLITICO reports the RNC has targeted several U.S. Senators, including Minnesota’s own Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

As Alpha News pointed out, named a serious contender, Klobuchar remains coy on her decision to run for president, but has slowly raised her national profile. Once a famous name only in Minnesota, Klobuchar has begun to brand herself for a larger, more national audience.

Most recently, Klobuchar had a fundraiser hosted by Hollywood celebrities in Brentwood, California.

Many look to Trump’s approval ratings playing a major role as to how the 2020 election cycle will play out.

Just last month, POLITICO published an article detailing the six-month historic low that has encapsulated Trump’s poll numbers.

“Gerald Ford was the last president to be near that mark in the poll half-a-year into his presidency, with a 39 percent approval rating in February 1975,” POLITICO author Rebecca Morin writes. “At the six-month mark, both former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were at 59 percent.”   

Trump’s 36 percent approval rating is the lowest amongst presidents within the same time frame, but it is not the lowest rating overall.

President George W. Bush hovered around a 55 percent approval rating in the first few months of his presidency, before receiving a huge boost of support following 9/11, where his approval ratings remained in the 80’s for seven months, before it continued to fall to an all-time low of 25 percent, right before he left office in 2008.

Even President Barack Obama had several weeks of job approval ratings in the low 40’s throughout his presidency.

However, the president still has die-hard supporters willing to follow him into the 2020 election. A more recent Huffington Post article determined 43 percent of Americans were happy with Trump’s job performance, while most of them were unhappy with aspects of it. A Monmouth University poll determined nearly 25 percent of Trump supporters believe he can do no wrong.

Preya Samsundar

Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.