Major Democratic Player Appears Poised to Possibly Run in 2024...And It's Not Joe or Kamala
Just days ago, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki seemed adamant that Joe Biden was going to run for reelection in 2024 – a peculiar thing to say at the time.
You see, Psaki made the rather confident prediction just 10 months into Biden’s already-disastrous first term, as the President’s approval rating continues to plunge into the depths of despair. The statement also roiled Democrats who are already split on whether or not Sleepy Joe is up for another 3 years in office…let alone 7.
But now it appears that there may have been an ulterior motive for Psaki’s insistence, and it’s coming from inside the Democratic Party itself.
Pete Buttigieg has long been a man in a hurry.
Since 2010, he has run for treasurer of Indiana, mayor of South Bend, chair of the Democratic National Committee, and president of the United States. At 39, he is one of the most omnipresent and newly-powerful members of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet. But he says he’s not thinking about what comes next, even as he’s buzzed about as a potential Biden heir.
“I’d say the other thing that I’m really enjoying about this job, although it’s very demanding and obviously requiring a lot, is that this is the least I have had to think about campaigns and elections in about a decade and that’s a very good thing,” he told POLITICO on Friday, amidst people in hard hats and bright yellow safety vests in a construction zone near Terminal 4 at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.
And…
While Buttigieg says he’s not contemplating the race to be Biden’s successor, inside the West Wing, others are imagining it for him. His name is sometimes discussed by aides as a natural Democratic presidential nominee in 2028 — or 2024 if the president opts not to run.
“Nobody in the West Wing shuts that down,” said one person with direct knowledge of the conversations. “It’s very open.”
But, as with all pieces of the Democratic story, the party isn’t going to come to some sort of tacit agreement on the value of Buttigieg, with some already suggesting that running Mayor Pete would be racially insensitive on account of Kamala Harris’ time in the role of Vice President.
