San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro (pictured above) has formally announced his intentions to run in the 2020 Presidential Election. The media should focus on Castro and others who are officially running instead of feeding into rumors and speculation (Commonwealth Club/Creative Commons).
Many Democratic politicians have announced their intentions to run for president in 2020. People with varying levels of popularity and recognition—from Cory Booker to Pete Buttigieg—have thrown their hats into the ring.
News sites and political publications should write more about presidential candidates that do not have the benefit of name recognition, instead of discussing politicians who have not yet officially decided if they are running.
This election cycle is already different from the 2016 election, due to the sheer number of candidates who have announced their intentions to run so far—almost a year before the first primary elections. Most campaigns for the 2016 election were not announced until the summer of 2015.
With strong doubts in the Trump administration, however, Democrats are eager to challenge him in the 2020 election—assuming he becomes the nominee again. Meanwhile, political commentators and outlets are very eager to comment on who has the best chance to win the Democratic nomination.
A FiveThirtyEight article highlights this phenomenon well, as the publication has recently published an article titled, “What The Potential 2020 Candidates Are Doing And Saying, Vol. 7.” This article is part of a weekly update on candidates that reports on interviews, trips and speeches that they have conducted.
While their intention to keep track of the candidates means well, the attempt to cover as many politicians as possible takes attention away from underdog candidates that could benefit more from press coverage than well-established politicians who already have sufficient recognition.
For example, Beto O’Rourke—the Democratic challenger to Ted Cruz in the 2018 Texas Senate election—is widely speculated to run for president. Due to his newfound fame from that election, many publications are tripping over themselves to voice their opinions on his potential decision to run.
“Beto O’Rourke is days away from making a big decision about his political future,” the first line of an article published by The Texas Tribune said on Friday Feb. 22. The article speculates O’Rourke’s potential campaign strategy and implies that his campaign could have major effects on the future of the Democratic party.
To juxtapose, the most recent article that The Texas Tribune wrote about Julián Castro—the former HUD Secretary that announced his candidacy in January—was published on Thursday Feb. 21. It clarified the role that Joaquín Castro—his twin brother and sitting congressman—will be performing in his brother’s presidential campaign.
The previous article written about Julián Castro was published by the Tribune on Jan. 14—more than a month before. In comparison, the previous article about O’Rourke was published by the Tribune on Feb. 19—only a few days earlier.
The attention placed on O’Rourke could be focused more on Castro’s campaign, as Castro has actually stated his intentions to run for president and has already traveled to Puerto Rico and Iowa—an early primary state.
The Texas Tribune and other publications should focus more on covering the presidential campaigns that have already been announced, rather than speculate over politicians that have not. By doing so, they can spread more awareness for the various platforms and proposals that already exist.