The LA Times is reporting that Eric Swalwell will be the first to officially drop out of the 2020 Democratic race for president, and he’ll do so this afternoon:
Rep. Eric Swalwell is expected to abandon his uphill run for president on Monday and announce that he will instead seek a fifth term in the House.
Swalwell’s plans were confirmed by a Capitol Hill source with knowledge of his intentions.
Swalwell, the Bay Area congressman, has languished for months near the bottom of the polls in the 2020 race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Swalwell, 38, of Dublin, Calif., had sought to cast himself as the candidate of a younger generation but was eclipsed by Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas.
After scrapping a visit to New Hampshire — the first primary state — Swalwell scheduled a news conference Monday afternoon in his East Bay congressional district, where he was expected to announce his decision. Officials with his campaign declined to discuss the matter before the news conference.
He’s getting out because he was a terrible candidate. Maybe there was plenty he did wrong in his campaign, but I really think it has more to do with him not having national appeal than anything else.
But there’s another Democrat who’s been heavily rumored today to get into the race for president…
As expectations grew that Swalwell would exit the race, another candidate, who’d earlier said he would not mount a presidential run, was planning to announce he’d changed his mind.
California billionaire Tom Steyer aims to announce this week that he will enter the race, according to a source close to Steyer. The liberal activist had traveled to Iowa in January to announce he was not running.
Steyer is a huge funder of the Democratic Party so if he’s about to get into the race for president, especially having already announced this year that he wasn’t running, it tells you just how he feels about this crop of 2020 Democrats.
We know he’s got money, but does he have the charisma to rise to the top of this party? It remains to be seen, but you can guarantee with all his money he’s gonna be a huge target of the 2020 field.
I’ll leave you with this…
It makes sense that the Dem field keeps growing because they don’t have anybody in yet who can beat President Trump.
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) July 8, 2019