Finding a Trump card

AN UNPRECEDENTED number of candidates make up the field to contest the Democratic primaries in 2020 for selecting their candidate to challenge Donald Trump.

MAIN MAN: President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Greenville, N.C., Wednesday, July 17, 2019. Picture: Gerry Broome

AN UNPRECEDENTED number of candidates make up the field to contest the Democratic primaries in 2020 for selecting their candidate to challenge Donald Trump for President of the United States, arguably the most powerful post in the world.

The ability to raise money and create a bandwagon effect are two prerequisites needed for any candidate to have a chance.

It then comes down to winning enough primaries to arrive at the Democratic convention in about mid-2020 and attract the support of delegates from across the 50 US states.

The successful candidate will then have the job of taking on Donald Trump.

Among the field is Joe Biden, 76 years old and former Vice-President under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017 and Bernie Sanders, a 77-year-old Senator from Vermont who is popular with the left and, like Joe Biden, has a strong recognition factor amongst the electorate.

This is a Melbourne Cup type field and many candidates have low public recognition outside their home state.

Some of the other names include Michael Bennet of Colorado, Cory Booker, Senator from New Jersey, Steve Bullock, Governor of Montana, Bill De Blasio the Mayor of New York City, John Hickenlooper the former Governor of Colorado, Jay Inslee the Governor of Washington state and Beto O'Rourke, 46, a former three-term Congressman from Texas.

The leading female contingent include Kamala Harris, a 54-year-old former Attorney General and now Senator from California, Kirsten Gillibrand, a 52-year-old Senator from New York, Amy Klobuchar, a three-term Senator form Minnesota, and Elizabeth Warren, 69, a Senator from Massachusetts and former Harvard University law professor.

Elizabeth Warren, like Bernie Sanders, is popular with progressive and left leaning Democrats and has got under Donald Trump's skin on a number of occasions.

There are also several other contenders and it will take time to watch the field finally come down to between four and six serious candidates.

Whomever wins the nomination will have a gigantic challenge to defeat Trump.

As unorthodox as he is, he has high popularity rating and middle America seems to love him.

The mid West, America's heartland, will probably stick with Trump.

Only a strong candidate with an outstanding Vice-Presidential candidate will have a chance of victory against the polarising Trump.

It's too early in the electoral cycle to accurately predict who will be chosen, however it seems to me that Kamala Harris with Bernie Sanders as her running mate would unify the centre and the left and geographically, with a candidate from California in the West and her running mate from Vermont in the North East, would provide some electoral balance. Time will tell, however Trump may prove hard to beat.