The Democratic primary is still six months away, and one thing is clear: Bill de Blasio will not be the nominee. But don’t tell him that.
The New York City mayor has never polled above 1%, but de Blasio isn’t worried. Democratic voters are “going to make their decision late,” he told CNN.
2020 hopeful Bill de Blasio reacts to ranking low in new CNN poll: “There is not, in the end I think, a sense among Democratic voters that they are secure where they want to go. The vast majority of Democratic voters are going to make their decision late” https://t.co/UAFHGyRvAq pic.twitter.com/fcNll8jP4U
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 20, 2019
“There is not, in the end I think, a sense among Democratic voters that they are secure where they want to go,” he said. “I’ve proven in New York that big changes can happen. When I go all over the country, this is what people want to see, and I can say, ‘Hey, I’ve actually gotten this done.’ So the more people get to know this record and this vision that I have, I think it’s going to move people.”
De Blasio’s problem isn’t that voters haven’t seen his “record” and “vision.” They have. They just don’t want anything to do with it. At the Iowa State Fair, which attracts more than 1 million people each year, attendees were asked to place a kernel of corn into a jar with their top caucus choice. At the end of the day, de Blasio’s jar had about 23 kernels, according to the New York Post. Not bad — except that more than 60,000 kernels were put into the various candidates’ jars.
Most of his own constituents (and even his staff!) disapprove of his presidential campaign. He might be the only candidate whose favorability actually drops as his name recognition grows. For most candidates, it’s the exact opposite: The more voters know you, the more they like you.
“The issue is people don’t like him, and he doesn’t care,” Rebecca Katz, a former longtime de Blasio adviser, told Vox.
De Blasio has yet to qualify for the third Democratic primary debate, the threshold for which is 130,000 individual donors and at least 2% in four different eligible polls. As of his last filing, de Blasio hasn’t met the polling requirement and has only about 6,700 donors, according to Politico. De Blasio has suggested he’ll stay in the race even if he doesn’t make the third debate stage. It will be an embarrassing, quiet and lonely campaign. But de Blasio doesn’t seem to care. He’s more concerned with ego than self-respect, and perhaps that’s why his campaign never had a chance.
De Blasio should read the writing on the wall and exit the race. Of course, this is as unlikely as his chance of polling above 1% because, for some reason, de Blasio still thinks he has a fighting chance. I’m not sure what country he’s running for president in, but it’s not this one.
