Ballotpedia's Daily Presidential News Briefing - March 20, 2019

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March 20, 2019

Sanders hires new senior adviser and speechwriter.   March 20, 2019: Bernie Sanders hired a senior adviser and speechwriter. Fox News announced a town hall with Howard Schultz. Share the latest from the campaign trail.         Notable Quote of the Day “[T]he policy promises that a candidate makes during his or her campaign are usually a better predictor of future stances than votes or positions taken well before the campaign. So O’Rourke’s more recent liberalism is important.” —Perry Bacon Jr., a writer for FiveThirtyEight on Beto O’Rourke’s policy views Democrats CNN announced that Cory Booker would appear at a televised town hall event on March 27 in South Carolina. The event will be moderated by Don Lemon. Julián Castro held a campaign event in Dallas, Texas. He told attendees that he supports universal, national pre-K and Medicare for All and that he would recommit to the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office. Kirsten Gillibrand stopped in Dubuque, Iowa, on Tuesday. She met with members of the public and delivered remarks at a cafe. Kamala Harris appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. She highlighted her legal experience, saying that voters will want “someone who has the proven ability to prosecute the case against this administration and this president.” Harris will campaign in Tarrant County, Texas, on March 22. Trump won that county in 2016, but Beto O’Rourke carried it during his 2018 Senate campaign. John Hickenlooper published an opinion piece on CNN where he discussed economic policy and the challenges he perceives for the American workforce. He called for an “investment of historic proportions in skills training and apprenticeships” and collaboration between labor unions, citizens, and civic organizations. Amy Klobuchar held a fundraiser in San Francisco, California. Citing her record of criticizing large tech companies, CNN said Klobuchar “is now engaged in a delicate balancing act, as she courts San Francisco's prominent donor class to contribute to her campaign.” CityLab published an interview with Wayne Messam, where he discussed positions on firearms, student loan debt, the recent college admissions scandal, and how city politics has prepared him for a presidential campaign. FiveThirtyEight published an article outlining some of Beto O’Rourke’s policy positions. Author Perry Bacon Jr. wrote, “O’Rourke may not be an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-style ‘Super-Progressive,’ but he has plenty of positions that Republicans would aggressively attack in a general election." O’Rourke visited State College, Pennsylvania, where he discussed immigration, income inequality, healthcare, opioids, and the criminal justice system. The Bernie Sanders campaign announced it hired David Sirota as a senior adviser and speechwriter. The campaign told The Atlantic that Sirota had been working unofficially for months in a trial period. During that time, the publication noted, Sirota criticized several other candidates or potential candidates on Twitter, on his own website, and in columns in The Guardian. Elizabeth Warren took a walking tour of Selma, Alabama, with Rep. Terri Sewell. Warren then held an organizing event in Birmingham. Marianne Williamson appeared at a town hall at New England College. The appearance concluded a three-day tour of New Hampshire. New Hampshire Journal published the first edition of its NHJournal 2020 Primary “Starting Five” Power Ranking. The outlet listed Sanders, Joe Biden, Harris, Booker, and O’Rourke as its starting five, named Warren to the bench, and named Pete Buttigieg the Cinderella story. Republicans Donald Trump told reporters he did not agree with Democratic proposals to change the makeup or selection of justices to the Supreme Court of the United States. “I wouldn’t entertain that. The only reason that they’re doing that is they want to try to catch up. It’ll never happen,” Trump said during a press conference with Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro. On the Cusp: Tracking Potential Candidates Terry McAuliffe said during a visit to South Carolina that he would decide soon whether or not to enter the race. The former governor of Virginia said, “I've said clearly, in the next couple of weeks, I'll make the final determination. So, I'm traveling around, but out of all those early states, I have a lot of strength here in South Carolina.” Joe Biden told a group of supporters that he intends to run for president and that he needs their help raising money from major donors, according to The Wall Street Journal. Biden expressed concern that he would not be able to raise large amounts of money online immediately the way other candidates, such as O’Rourke and Sanders, had. Howard Schultz will appear at a town hall event hosted by Fox News on April 4 in Kansas City, Missouri. The event will be hosted by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum focus on Schultz’s possible candidacy. Eric Swalwell discussed healthcare policy on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He said he would use a trillion dollars over 10 years to invest in finding cures for ALS, Alzheimer’s,  and Parkinson’s. Swalwell also said he would make a decision on entering the race by the end of March. What We’re Reading FiveThirtyEight: How Andrew Yang Could Win The 2020 Democratic Primary KGUN - ABC Tucson:  A look at the social media followers of current 2020 presidential candidates The Daily Caller: Court-Packing Emerges As Litmus Test In 2020 Democratic Primary   Flashback: March 20, 2015 Then-potential candidate Donald Trump told a crowd in Amherst, N.H., that “the country is going to hell.” Trump made the remarks at the home of state Rep. Stephen Stepanek and talked about Common Core, economic negotiations with China, and firearm policy. The Boston Herald noted that many New Hampshire GOP leaders dismissed Trump’s potential run as a publicity stunt.