Many of the already and expected to be announced presidential candidates for 2020 are currently serving in the US Senate. This list includes Senators Booker, Brown, Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar, Sanders and Warren.
The recent vote on the funding bill is a good first indication to me of how these Senators behave when making a big decision. Will they be political? Will they be practical? What motivates them? Are they willing to make a politically dangerous vote?
Let’s see how all these candidates and potential candidates voted:
Booker — NO
Brown — YES
Gillibrand — NO
Harris — NO
Klobuchar — YES
Sanders — YES
Warren — NO
My first snapshot reaction to this information was to note that most of the candidates labeled as progressives voted “NO”, while those labeled as moderates voted “YES”. The only exception was Bernie Sanders.
My other gut reaction was that until I hear some believable context from these candidates, those voting “NO” did so for purely political reasons. They made the votes knowing that the bill would pass and therefore they could safely vote “NO” without concerns of being held responsible for causing another shutdown.
It is interesting to speculate about what would have happened if the vote was closer and required one of these votes to pass. Who would have stepped up to the plate?
I suspect many voted “NO” so as not to be dinged on the immigration issue due to the bed funding in the bill. I really hope no one tries to use these votes in the debates to attack the fellow candidates. In my opinion, the honest vote here was to vote “YES”. It would have been crazy to vote “NO” on this and to force another government shutdown. Millions of contractors, small businesses and government employees have still not recovered from the last shutdown and will be suffering well into the future. I cannot imagine what another extended shutdown would have done to them.
While he is low on my list of choices this time around, I give Bernie Sanders huge credit for his honest vote on this issue. I will be giving him a second look after this vote and if he decides to run again.
On another note on this topic, this points out why it is so difficult for sitting Senators to be elected President. They are constantly being forced to publicly take stances on issues which can then be used against them by other candidates who can give wishy-washing, non-commital type answers to the issue.