As he inches toward joining a dozen other Democrats in the 2020 presidential primaries, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is taking a decidedly stingy approach to the party’s legions of liberal voters who have a laundry list of demands for free federal programs such as college.
“Folks, the Democratic Party should not be supporting sending Terry McAuliffe’s kids to college. I can afford that,” he said, dismissing calls in some corners of the party.
“We’ve got to have actionable, practical ideas. We can’t get into this election season with everybody trying to out-promise one another. The voters will be very discouraged, because at the end of the day, there’s no reality and some of these things never happened,” he added.
McAuliffe, who plans to announce by March 31 if he is jumping into the race, comes from the moderate Clinton wing of the party, the so-called New Democrats that have fallen out of favor as liberal superstars like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have stepped onto the national political stage.
But as more liberal Democrats have tossed their hats into the 2020 ring with pandering promises, McAuliffe has pulled himself in, possibly carving out a winnable slice of the primary and caucus electorate eager for a realistic agenda.
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“I’m all for aspirational goals,” he said last week at a University of Virginia Center for Politics conference on President Trump. But, he added, “it’s time we get some realism into the discussion today.”
McAuliffe has been on his realistic kick ever since leaving office this year, and he is picking up some support for it. A couple of times during the conference, for example, UVA’s political guru, Larry Sabato, embraced the likelihood of a McAuliffe 2020 campaign.
As with Clinton in 1992, McAuliffe is banking on his successes as a popular former governor to grab the attention of Democratic voters.
Instead of free college, for example, he preaches free job training. And he dresses it up with stories of $77,000 salaries for those who’ve gone through the state’s training program and bringing Virginia’s unemployment rate down.
He peppered his address at the conference with slams on Trump, accusing the president of lacking a “moral core” and driving a bigger wedge between races.
But his focus for now appears to be on laying the groundwork for a tough campaign and how it will play out in the first few months.
Up first is talking to his family about the grind of a campaign. Referring to his five children, he said “a couple” aren’t keen on him running. He quoted one son who said, “I don’t want Secret Service around.”
Next, he is looking at fundraising, expecting that it will take $50 million to make it through the early primaries and caucuses. And then there is planning for the early debates, which could start in June.
He figures that there will be eight to 10 top tier candidates and that the struggle for money, staffing, and attention will trim the other potential two dozen candidates fast.
“There is going to be a very quick weeding-out process on this,” he predicted.
“This is a very tough venture,” McAuliffe said.
[Opinion: Terry McAuliffe is the grown-up in the Democrats’ 2020 room]
