Two Democratic operatives see an opening for Hillary Clinton to run again for president in 2024.
A commentary article published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday makes the case that a “perfect storm” is brewing in the Democratic Party, including low approval numbers for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as questions about whether Biden, now 79, will be viable to run for a second term.
All this creates a “leadership vacuum,” according to Douglas Schoen, founder and partner of Schoen Cooperman Research, a polling and consulting firm whose past clients include Bill Clinton and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Andrew Stein, a former New York City Council president, Manhattan borough president, and state assemblyman.
Clinton “is already in an advantageous position to become the 2024 Democratic nominee. She is an experienced national figure who is younger than Mr. Biden and can offer a different approach from the disorganized and unpopular one the party is currently taking,” they wrote.
“If Democrats lose control of Congress in 2022, Mrs. Clinton can use the party’s loss as a basis to run for president again, enabling her to claim the title of ‘change candidate,'” the pair added.
Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, has served as a U.S. senator and secretary of state. She made history in 2016 when she became the first woman to represent a major party in a U.S. presidential election. However, Clinton lost that contest to Donald Trump, who is flirting with another run himself.
Schoen and Stein noted that Clinton has been offering advice to fellow Democrats about how to win elections at a time when the party is expected to lose control of one if not both chambers of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections. They cited a recent interview in which Clinton called on Democrats to engage in “careful thinking about what wins elections, and not just in deep-blue districts where a Democrat and a liberal Democrat, or so-called progressive Democrat, is going to win” and noted that party’s House majority “comes from people who win in much more difficult districts.”
The pair concluded, “If Democrats want a fighting chance at winning the presidency in 2024, Mrs. Clinton is likely their best option.”
Authored by Daniel Chaitin via Washington Examiner
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