Jackson Miller
Staff Writer
It has been a little over two weeks since the midterm elections, and one question is now on a lot of people’s minds: who will run against President Trump in 2020?
No one has the answer yet, despite the growing list of Democratic contenders.
However, any person who decides to run should not make the same mistake that Hillary Clinton made in 2016, and that is to underestimate Trump’s ability to win.
Despite the divisive and blatantly inaccurate things Trump has said since his win in 2016 up until now, he has managed to maintain support among American voters.
According to the polling website FiveThirtyEight, the approval rating for President Trump is currently sitting at 42.9 percent, which is pretty normal for late-term presidents.
For example, according to Gallup, President Obama’s approval rating after the 2010 midterm election was at 45 percent. Looking at this, if nothing big happens between now and November 2020, there is a good possibility that Trump may win a second term.
However, if the Mueller investigation concludes and it turns out that the president is complicit in any sort of crime, it can be said that he may be impeached, but that does not seem likely.
This is because the branch that deals with impeachment is currently controlled by Republicans, and there is no way that they will risk removing the leader of their party from office with the support that he still holds.
Also, no president in the history of the United States has been convicted of any crime despite the fact that three presidents have been impeached.
So, to use Trump’s own words, the only way he could be impeached and convicted is “by shooting a man on Fifth Avenue in New York City.”
Nonetheless, it is not that far-fetched to assume that someone will unseat him come the 2020 election cycle. There are many new faces making their way into the spotlight, who offer some fierce competition against Trump’s rule.
One of these people who I think has a great chance if he decides to run is Beto O’Rourke, who ran a very tight race against Ted Cruz in the Texas Senate race.
Although he has stated that he had no desire to run in 2020 after his defeat to Cruz, O’Rourke has recently stated that he is no longer ruling it out.
O’Rourke is definitely a breath of fresh air when it comes to the choices we have right now, but that does not mean he will be nominated.
I say this because no one has officially said that they are running for president aside from a couple of people no one has heard of, and if this race is anything like in 2016 when there were a lot of Republicans seeking the nomination, it can only be certain that there will be just as many Democrats when 2020 rolls around.
Not only is it possible that a Democratic opponent such as O’Rourke can beat Trump, but it is also possible that the president may face some opposition from those in his own party.
According to Bloomberg, Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who ran against Trump for the 2016 Republican nomination, said that he is considering the possibility to run again, either as a Republican or an Independent.
If this were to happen, it would perhaps be the most devastating blow to Trump’s chances at reelection considering any event that may change the minds of those in his base.
Nonetheless, Trump knows how to win, and by looking at what kind of person he is, he may even twist the rules a bit in order to do that.
Although things may not look so good for him at the moment, with this president in office it seems that every hour is a day and every day is a year, so anything can happen.
Just like a wolf lashes out when it gets cornered, Trump is starting to show his fangs like never before, and he will be more likely to use every resource he has to defeat his opponent.