Advisers: Gore not running against Hillary

Despite some hopeful speculation among Democrats that Al Gore might jump into the 2016 presidential race in the face of Hillary Clinton’s troubles, people close to the former vice president and Democratic nominee say he’s not considering it.

“There’s no truth to it. He’s laser-focused on solving the climate crisis," Gore spokeswoman Betsy McManus told POLITICO Thursday evening.


Earlier Thursday, Buzzfeed News posted a story saying that “supporters” of Gore “have begun a round of conversations among themselves and with the former vice president about his running for president in 2016, the latest sign that top Democrats have serious doubts that Hillary Clinton is a sure thing.” The story quoted a “senior Democrat” as saying “they’re getting the old gang together” and “figuring out if there’s a path financially and politically,” and the article cited “a member of Gore’s inner circle” who “asked to be quoted ‘pouring lukewarm water’ — not, note, cold water — on the chatter.”

But Mike Feldman, who was Gore’s traveling chief of staff during the 2000 presidential election campaign and speaks to him regularly, says the speculation is probably just “Democrats talking to other Democrats. … I’m not saying there’s nobody out there fantasizing about it, but I haven’t heard anything and I’d be pretty insulted if there were a group of Gore advisers meeting and I wasn’t invited. I just don’t think this is on his mind.”

In recent days other close Gore advisers have also told POLITICO that they have not heard of any interest from the 2000 Democratic nominee in another run.

One likely reason for the current speculation about Gore is that Clinton is facing new iterations of email-gate, flagging poll numbers and still-surging Bernie Sanders-mania, despite a conviction among many Democratic strategists that Sanders is not electable. And strategists know that if Clinton falters, there are probably only two tried-and-true Democratic candidates who can be considered experienced enough to step in: Vice President Joe Biden is one (and is said to be actively considering a run), and the other is Gore, Biden’s Democratic predecessor as veep. (A possible third might be 2004 loser John Kerry, with the current secretary of state now riding high over his diplomatic coup in Geneva to curtail Iran’s nuclear program.)

Gore has stayed entirely out of presidential politics since he won the popular vote but lost the White House 15 years ago. In a phone interview, Democratic strategist James Carville said while he also “hasn’t heard” anything from the Gore camp, he wouldn’t be surprised if Gore weren’t at least considering the possibilities. “Running for president is like having sex. No one did it once and forgot about it. If you can do it, you want to do it again, it’s something you don’t get out of your system.” He also noted this was a “very fluid cycle, and it’s still early in the process.”