John Hickenlooper is a pragmatic two-term governor with a record of bipartisan accomplishment. Is that what the party wants?
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper formally enters the 2020 Democratic presidential race Monday. It’s a pretty crowded field, and he’s going up against some strong candidates with substantial financial reserves and high name recognition in early contest states. What does he bring to the table?
One notable feature of the current top tier of Democratic presidential candidates is that it’s very Congress-heavy. Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bernie Sanders are all in the Senate. Julián Castro is a House member. Joe Biden was a multi-decade senator. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s entry last week changed the field somewhat, but it’s still possible for a governor to stand out in this crowd.
Governors often have certain advantages when they seek the presidency, in that their job is more like the presidency than any other in the country. They can point to records of leadership, of negotiating with legislators, of balancing budgets, and so forth, that make them sound prepared for the presidency. And unlike members of Congress, they haven’t cast hundreds or thousands of roll call votes that can be caricatured to make them sound like an extremist or a flip-flopper.
These advantages work particularly well for Hickenlooper. During most of his tenure as governor, he worked with one chamber controlled by Democrats and the other by Republicans. He earned a reputation of bipartisan accomplishment, particularly in 2017 and 2018 when the state government proved highly productive despite being strongly polarized.
