February 15, 2019: Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld launched a presidential exploratory committee to challenge President Donald Trump. The Democratic National Committee announced new polling and fundraising criteria for participation in debates beginning June.
Share the latest from the campaign trail.
   
Democrats
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Sens. Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Elizabeth Warren voted against the spending deal that passed 83-16 Thursday. Booker, Harris, and Gillibrand released statements criticizing the amount of funding for barriers on the southern border and immigration detention. Sen. Amy Klobuchar supported the deal.
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Former Rep. John Delaney criticized the Green New Deal, tweeting it had “unrealistic goals” that made fighting climate change more difficult. “The Green New Deal as it has been proposed is about as realistic as Trump saying that Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Let's focus on what's possible, not what's impossible,” he added.
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Gillibrand announced Pat Devney, who worked on Rep. Annie Kuster’s (D-N.H.) successful 2014 re-election campaign, will serve as her New Hampshire state director. Shannon MacLeod also joins the team as New Hampshire political director.
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Harris was endorsed by Rep. Barbara Lee, a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
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To qualify to participate in the Democratic primary debates, a candidate must either reach 1 percent support in three separate polls or meet a grassroots fundraising threshold, the Democratic National Committee announced. For the first debate, the threshold is donations from 65,000 people in at least 20 states. If more than 20 candidates meet at least one of these criteria, the DNC will give preference to candidates who satisfy both.
Republicans
On the Cusp: Tracking Potential Candidates
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Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet will visit Iowa next week. Bennet political adviser Craig Hughes said, “Michael is planning a trip to Iowa to engage with voters as he considers whether to enter the race for president.”
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Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is reportedly waiting until March to make a decision about 2020. Bloomberg and his team “want to wait and see how the growing field of Democratic candidates shapes up, said the person. Bloomberg's advisers also think it would be good to put some distance between other candidates' announcements during the last several weeks and his decision,” CNN reported.
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Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar, Florida, said he has been encouraged to enter the national stage. “I’m just taking those comments and those urgings to really push and to seriously consider the prospects of perhaps running for president,” Messam said.
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Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke is speaking at an event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Friday.
What We’re Reading
Flashback: February 15, 2015
Marist released a poll of early voting states Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, that showed seven of the 11 Republican presidential candidates had received double-digit support in at least one state. No candidate received more than 20 percent in any state. “Top tier? The morning line for these critical states points to a rough and tumble Republican nomination battle,” said Lee Miringoff, the poll’s director.
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