The famous saying claims that the early bird gets the worm, yet both the former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg apparently did not get the memo. Patrick officially entered the race on Nov. 14 and Bloomberg formally entered on Nov. 24, following weeks of speculation on whether he actually would.
At this point in the race, all of the other candidates vying for the presidency have had weeks or even months of campaigning, putting Patrick and Bloomberg in a difficult place to gain the ground that they missed. There’s a little less than two months before the first presidential primary kicks off in Iowa. However, the race is far from decided, which could work in both of the latecomers’ advantage.
The Democratic field is currently being led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden, a progressive and a moderate, and it’s up to the voters to decide whose ideology will yield the most results.
Patrick is a tantalizing option for the undecided voters, as he has mainly focused on showing why he’s different from the other candidates in the field, promoting himself as the bridge between progressive and moderate, black and white and plans and actions in a way that former President Barack Obama was able to do in 2008 and 2012.
Patrick, however, is racing against the clock in capturing some voters, as he’s just now starting to campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — the first four states to vote for a Democratic nominee — while he’s still building up his campaign and fundraising teams.
Bloomberg, on the other hand, is taking several risks that only Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders might be able to attempt. Similar to Trump, the billionaire is coming into the race with lots of name recognition and a nice lump of money to his name, two very important elements for success in a political campaign. However, Bloomberg has a track record of switching between parties and some of the policies he enacted as mayor were controversial for targeting minorities in New York City, which will come into question sooner or later.
Bloomberg is also forgoing competing in the first four primary states and instead directing his attention on getting the most votes on Super Tuesday — March 3 — in which 14 states’ votes are up for grabs, including California and Texas.
That plan could theoretically work and it would make for an even better story than Trump’s astounding win did, but Bloomberg has not even qualified for the December and January debates yet so it’s unlikely that the former mayor will cause waves during the primaries.
In a field that’s still divided, even among like-minded candidates, Bloomberg and Patrick could still shake things up as 2020 kicks off. One of them might even catch the worm.
