While Hillary Clinton has been coy about whether she’ll run for president again in 2020 — even suggesting that she just might — a former Democratic National Committee chairman said the two-time loser will be a no go.
Donna Brazile said Tuesday that she doesn’t think Clinton will toss her hat in the ring again.
“The Democrats, who many of us believe ‘spent some time in the wilderness’ have come from behind — and I thought that we would have to go to Count Dracula’s blood bank to get new blood in the Democratic Party. Thank God we got some new blood,” Brazile said at the annual meeting of The Wall Street Journal CEO Council.
“There are a lot of freshmen from across the country. Many of them lack legislative experience and so it will kind of take time for them to get accustomed to the slow pace of passing legislation,” she said.
But when asked if Clinton will be among the contenders, Brazile said flatly: “No.”
Brazile’s prediction comes on the heels of another from longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines, who said Hillary is “more likely to win Powerball” than to run for president again.
Mark Penn, a pollster and senior adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton from 1995-2008, and Andrew Stein, former Democratic Manhattan borough president and president of the New York City Council, wrote a piece last month saying Hillary will go.
“Hillary Will Run Again.” The sub-headline went further: “Reinventing herself as a liberal firebrand, Mrs. Clinton will easily capture the 2020 nomination.”
And the lead said:
“Get ready for Hillary Clinton 4.0. More than 30 years in the making, this new version of Mrs. Clinton, when she runs for president in 2020, will come full circle—back to the universal-health-care-promoting progressive firebrand of 1994. True to her name, Mrs. Clinton will fight this out until the last dog dies. She won’t let a little thing like two stunning defeats stand in the way of her claim to the White House.”
Last month, Clinton left the door open to a possible 2020 run. “Do you want to run again?” Recode’s Kara Swisher asked her during a Q&A session.”No, no,” Clinton replied, prompting laughter.
But then she added: “I’d like to be president.”
Clinton then made an early campaign speech, saying “there’s going to be so much work to be done” if a Democrat can win in 2020. “The work would be work that I feel very well prepared for having been in the Senate for eight years, having been a diplomat in the State Department,” she said.
But like all politicians, she refused to say if she’s in or not. “I’m not even going to even think about it until we get through this November 6th election about what’s going to happen after that,” Clinton said.
Still, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway might just support a Hillary run.
When reports of a possible Hillary run emerged, Conway took to Twitter to say simply, “Dear God, please, yes.”