The country is 337 days away from the Iowa caucuses and 611 days from the general election for president. But that’s not stopping Democrats from debating the politics of entering the race really, really early or just, well, plain old-fashioned early.
A dozen candidates, half of whom are women, rushed into the contest in the first two months of 2019, creating the most diverse primary field in history. Now, the party is on the cusp of a second round of announcements: A wave of white men, most of whom have targeted March as their do-or-die moment.
“Amy and I have made a decision about how we can best serve our country,” former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas said in a brief statement Wednesday. “We are excited to share it with everyone soon.”
Michael Bloomberg gave himself a timeline of “three more weeks” to decide — 2 1/2 weeks ago.
Asked last Sunday whether he was running, Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington answered, “We’re getting to that point where we can talk to you about that.”
Inslee announced his bid Friday morning, and former Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado is expected to enter the race as soon as next week. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio is wrapping up his tour of early primary states, leaving him a week or two away from making a decision, say those who have spoken to him.
“We are in a period of campaigns starting earlier,” said Joel Benenson, a Democratic pollster who played a top role in Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns. “I don’t think that you’re dead in the water if you don’t get in by April 1, but you don’t have a lot of time after that.”
There are arguments for both an early and a late start. A winter launch means more time to raise money, attract coveted staff members and build grassroots support. But a spring announcement could bring the appeal of a fresh face into a crowded field.
Some of those considering joining the race are not household names, and an earlier entrance might have gotten lost in the sea of announcements from prominent Democrats like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand.
The exception, of course, is former Vice President Joe Biden, who polls show would instantly be the early front-runner if he ran. His indecision has fed a constant stream of will-he-or-won’t-he speculation.
Biden, in an appearance Tuesday at the University of Delaware, said his family is urging him to run. But, he added, “I’m not there yet.”
“I have not made the final decision — but don’t be surprised,” he said. If he were to run, he said, he expected he would enter the race in the second quarter of the year.
O’Rourke, whose strong showing in his failed challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, boosted him to political stardom, has kept his decision-making process far more closely held.
While O’Rourke has spent his time since his Senate defeat traveling the country, posting viral Instagram videos and talking to voters, others’ presidential aspirations have been complicated by their day jobs. Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, another potential candidate, is reluctant to spend much time traveling to early primary states during his state’s legislative session, a gathering that happens only once every two years and isn’t expected to finish until April, his aides say.
Hickenlooper was governor until early January, making it difficult for him to fully focus on a presidential campaign until after the new year, aides said. He has argued that taking the extra time is worth the potential cost.
“To me, it’s better to be late a few weeks and lose money on it, and not have raised as much money as you would have, but actually have everybody unified,” Hickenlooper told Colorado reporters, who traveled to Iowa to cover his not-quite-yet-campaign.
Of course, in 2020, “late” is still really early. Democratic candidates have packed the field far faster in 2019 than in any other primary contest in the modern era.
For those outside the race, the whole discussion over whether to announce in January or April seems slightly insane.
“The primaries are in a few weeks, right?” joked Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, who has endorsed Harris. “The whole thing, it’s absurd. ‘Biden really needs to decide right now.’ Really, does he? I mean come on.”
But whether Biden is out or in, Democrats haven’t seen a race this wide open in over a decade. Competition for donors and staff is fierce, with some early-state operatives being courted by nearly a dozen candidates, candidates-to-be and potential candidates.
Already, fundraising requests flood Democrats’ inboxes, a reflection of the frenzy around small-dollar donations that has taken hold as candidates try to court the party’s base by rejecting corporate and big-dollar donations — at least for the primary contest.
The earlier candidates enter the race, the more time they have to build up their political ATMs — a roster of potential supporters they can tap again and again for contributions. They will be competing with grassroots fundraising behemoths, some of whom have millions left over from past campaigns and expansive lists of supporters. Sanders, for instance, collected more than $10 million in his first week as a candidate, according to campaign officials.
Much of the fundraising anxiety stems from the looming deadline of April 15, the date candidates must file their first financial reports of the year with the Federal Election Commission. With early polling measuring little more than name recognition, those numbers are typically viewed as the first real demonstration of relative strength.
“I would not wait much longer,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of the political action committee Emily’s List and an early proponent of online fundraising as Howard Dean’s national finance director. “If they’re going to run they’ve got to go. The money isn’t just going to come immediately.”
Supporters of Warren, who effectively pushed up the start date of the race with her surprise New Year’s Eve announcement, say her early entrance allowed unfettered political space for her message. But she has still faced fundraising struggles, as Sanders — who poses perhaps her toughest competition for economic progressives — has raised far more money.
“Being first in has one downside: People can applaud your big bold ideas while also thinking, ‘I’d like to wait six months before picking a horse and making my first donation,'” said Adam Green, co-founder of the liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has endorsed Warren.
Julián Castro, the former housing secretary and former mayor of San Antonio, who launched his exploratory committee more than two weeks before Warren, described his early start as a strategic choice to give himself the best shot at building a following against better-known and better-financed rivals.
“What I need is time. I need the fight to start earlier,” Castro said.
But some Democrats question whether the traditional rules of the “invisible primary” — the prevoting period when candidates rack up endorsements, donors and media attention — still apply. In 2015, President Donald Trump entered the primaries in June, and Sanders at the end of April.
Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who is working for Hickenlooper, says the real sorting of the field will begin with the first primary debate in June, a potentially two-night event that she believes will have “off-the-chart” viewership.
“I just think all these traditional trappings of primary campaigns were upended in 2016 and are already being upended in 2020,” Greenberg said. “Nobody really knows what the rules are now.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.