Montana governor and potential Democratic presidential nominee Steve Bullock has warned his party that Trump’s re-election is becoming more and more “likely,” and he believes that it is because the party is sharply veering left, per Politico .
“We are well on our way to losing this election long before it ever really has started,” he said yesterday while at the National Press Club.
“Please permit me to take everyone out of the ‘Twitterverse’ for at least a minute and bring us back to Earth. We cannot defeat Trump’s politics of personal destruction if we practice self-destruction,” he added, along with another dire warning.
“I saw his reelection becoming more likely with each passing minute.”
Governor Bullock has experience reaching across the aisle as a Democratic governor in a state which Trump carried by more than 20 percentage points. He has been able to straddle contentious issues; for example, the governor supports universal background checks and outlawing high-capacity magazines and assault weapons in a state that deeply values second amendment rights. Bullock’s position shifted from 2016, which the governor has attributed to the March for Our Lives movement. He also has a personal connection to the issue, as his nephew was killed in a playground due to gun violence.
It is partially due to Bullock’s knowledge of independents and Republicans that Bullock has highlighted two issues that will potentially cause Trump to win re-election in 2020: the health insurance debate and border policies. Some of the Democratic candidates have supported abolishing private health insurance in favor of Medicare for all. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the front-runners for the nomination, is the most popular candidate to support the measure.
Kamala Harris also originally supported the issue as well in the first Democratic debate, though she has since said that she misheard the question and would keep private insurance.
“It’s now the Democrats calling to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Bullock said. “If you propose abolishing private insurance, you will lose.”
The other issue is arguably what vaulted Donald Trump to the forefront of the Republican candidates in 2016: immigration.
“We need border security. But we need sanity,” Bullock said.
His remarks come after many candidates, such as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have pushed for decriminalizing border crossings. As reported by Mother Jones , the move is de facto creating a border that is open in all but name. In addition, several candidates have also pushed for free health insurance to illegal immigrants as well as unconditional pathways to citizenship.
“Every action cannot be a reaction to a Trump,” he concluded on his party’s progressive swing.
Bullock is currently polling at around 1 percent in the polls, but the governor has said that he will continue to target early state voters.