A longtime Democratic officeholder and cabinet official says the party’s 2020 primary fight is likely to come down to a contest between three top-tier candidates, who could split the vote and force the first contested convention in nearly 70 years.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, 72, told the Washington Examiner he expects the finalists in the Democratic nomination fight to be former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“I think it will be a Biden-Buttigieg-Warren race, but Biden is defying the odds and moving forward,” said Richardson, who sought the 2008 Democratic nomination but like then-Delaware Sen. Biden that year, dropped out after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses.
But Biden’s support may still be short in the delegate count, said Richardson, who was New Mexico governor from 2003-2011. Richardson previously was a Democratic congressman from New Mexico for 14 years, before joining President Bill Clinton’s administration as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and then Energy Department secretary.
Richardson also gave an implicit endorsement of former Biden, 77, saying he was the most likely to beat President Trump in the 2020 general election.
Richardson said more Democrats should consider dropping out of the race.
“The field is winnowing down,” Richardson said. “What I think is emerging is the potential for a brokered convention, where each candidate gets 20%-25% or so of the vote.”
Still, the likelihood of a contested convention remains low, even with 15 Democrats still running for their party’s nomination. No nominating convention has gone more than one ballot since Democrats gathered in Chicago and nominated Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson II on the third round of voting.
A contested convention has been a fever dream of sorts for political reporters and even elected officials.
“It would be kind of fun,” then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said in a February 2016 interview, amid the heated primary fight between Hillary Clinton, who eventually won, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
