December 4, 2019: Tom Steyer crossed the fundraising threshold to qualify for the sixth Democratic primary debate. Kamala Harris ended her presidential campaign.
“But while consensus candidates like Harris work in theory, in practice they often fail to build a base and tend to crash when hard times hit. That was part of Harris’s problem — she briefly managed to catch fire after the first Democratic primary debate, but she made some questionable decisions, failed to maintain momentum and eventually lost to candidates who had built more reliable bases for themselves. …
In retrospect, Harris’s campaign looks like a truncated version of Rubio’s 2016 effort. Analysts, reporters and pundits on the right had high hopes for Rubio in the early phases of the primary: He was telegenic, conservative but not too far right, a potential compromise for business conservatives and the religious right, and a symbol of a party that could expand and build a permanent majority. Rubio’s surge hit at a better time than Harris’s — right after Iowa, rather than in the middle of the summer — but he wilted under the spotlight. … Rubio’s message was always something like ‘I’m a unifier, and I can win the election,’ but it’s much harder to make that argument when you’re failing to unify your own party and losing elections.”
– David Byler, The Washington Post
Democrats
Rep. Ami Bera endorsedJoe Biden on Tuesday, marking his fourth endorsement from California’s congressional delegation.
Michael Bloomberg released several criminal justice proposals on Tuesday, including funding alternative-to-incarceration programs and reducing or eliminating cash bail for non-violent offenders.
Cory Booker will campaign in Iowa on Thursday, kicking off his “Lead with Love” tour of the state.
Pete Buttigieg campaigned in Montgomery, Alabama, on Tuesday. He will continue his tour of the state with a stop in Birmingham on Wednesday. VoteVets endorsed Buttigieg, marking the group’s first-ever presidential endorsement.
Kamala Harrisended her presidential campaign on Tuesday. She said in a statement, “I’m not a billionaire. I can’t fund my own campaign. And as the campaign has gone on, it’s become harder and harder to raise the money we need to compete.”
In a new national service plan released on Tuesday, Amy Klobuchar called for expanding AmeriCorps and establishing a new Climate Civilian Conservation Corps. The Klobuchar campaign also announced it would double its field offices in Iowa up to 20.
Deval Patrickdiscussed his upbringing in Chicago as part of WMUR’s “Candidate Café” series in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
Bernie Sanders will campaign in Iowa on Thursday, speaking at a presidential forum on organic food production.
Tom Steyer crossed the fundraising threshold and qualified for the sixth Democratic primary debate on Tuesday, making him the sixth candidate still in the race to qualify.
Elizabeth Warren is airing an ad and participating in an interview on Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.
