John Delaney is a three-term congressman, stuck low on the seniority totem pole, representing a state packed with other Democrats, deep in a powerless minority.

And he thinks he should be president of the United States.


The 55-year-old former finance executive is part of a rapidly proliferating group of declared or potential 2020 candidates driven largely by one overriding principle: If Donald Trump can do it, why not me?

The usual early trickle of potential presidential candidates into Iowa and New Hampshire is already a full-on flood ahead of Trump’s reelection bid. And in the place of the traditional assortment of senators and governors is an ever-expanding hodgepodge of long shots — from mayors to House members to state-level bureaucrats — each absolutely convinced they hold the key to kicking the president to the curb come 2020.

"We need new people and ideas," said Delaney, who was elected to a House seat in Maryland in 2012. “Whether you’re a governor, a senator or a member of the House of Representatives, that’s really irrelevant to voters.”

Eyeing a historically unpopular commander in chief, a national party devoid of an obvious front-runner, and increasingly accessible online tools providing a semi-reliable source of funding, Democrats find that the barriers to entering the presidential conversation are lower than ever. And each new entry begets others eager to be in the mix or at least raise their profile — however slim their chances of winning the nomination might be.

Indeed, the swift expansion of the "Why-not-me caucus" shows no signs of slowing. And it's ballooning the party’s roster of potential candidates, which is stretching past 40 wannabes — including a dozen-plus senators, a half-dozen governors, seven or so House members, and 10 or more former lawmakers of all stripes.

“It’s probably a combination of, ‘If Trump can do it, [so can I],’ but also alarm at the direction of the country, and thinking, 'I’ve got to step up and add my voice,'” suggested Lincoln Chafee, the former Rhode Island governor and senator who sought the Democratic nomination against all odds in 2016.

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It’s been nine decades since the Democrats’ nominee had no experience as a senator or governor. Yet roughly half of 2020’s potential presidential contenders have none, and many are under 45 years old.

Some of the biggest impediments to waging a campaign for the highest office have diminished. For one, raising money to finance a bare-bones campaign is easier than ever online — it no longer requires the painstaking years of donor-stroking that have dominated pre-campaigns for decades.

And with no single front-runner shaping the landscape, there’s more opportunity for no-names to try to make themselves known. The political penalties associated with appearing too ambitious, too soon have also faded, judging by voters’ rewarding of garish flouting of political traditions in 2016.

For some potential candidates, the incentives to pop up in Iowa and draw headlines are too strong to resist, even aside from White House dreams. A hypercharged media environment nearly guarantees a boost in their profile with each Cedar Rapids storefront visit. And, many hopefuls figure, what better way to get voters and the press interested in your pet issue than to talk it up at a union hall in Nashua?

Delaney has already held more than 90 events in Iowa and New Hampshire since announcing his run in July because, he said, “I’m the right person for the job, but no one knows who I am.”

He’s far from alone in racking up frequent flier miles.

A quartet of mayors have joined the fray: New York’s Bill de Blasio visited Des Moines for a progressive organization’s year-end fundraiser last month, while Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti has stopped in both New Hampshire and Nevada, the fourth-voting state, while making plans to visit South Carolina, the third.

New Orleans’ Mitch Landrieu has also inched toward a run, appearing at last month’s South Carolina Democratic Party conference, while Pete Buttigieg, the 35-year-old leader of South Bend, Indiana, popped up in Iowa in September.

The activity extends to individuals who are out of their government jobs. Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro launched a new political group in August. Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander — who decided not to seek reelection in order to wage an ultimately unsuccessful campaign for Senate in 2016 — has traveled the country nonstop with his new voting-rights organization. He's gone to Iowa and New Hampshire so many times that he’s become a fixture at private and public local party events.

When Kander dispatched his 2016 Senate campaign manager to open a field office in Iowa last year, speculation ratcheted up that he would become the first politician to pursue the presidency whose highest elected office was secretary of state.

Then there are Delaney’s colleagues in the House, a group that tends to shy from presidential speculation because of their relatively low profiles and the difficulty of keeping one’s seat while pursuing the top job.

Rep. Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois announced his retirement in November and has floated a run. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii made waves with two speeches in Iowa in October. And a pair of Californians whose profiles have risen with the Trump-Russia investigations have also edged their way into the conversation.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, spoke at the same South Carolina event that Landrieu addressed last month, while Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, another Intelligence Committee member, has visited Iowa repeatedly, often reminding his audiences that he was born there.

Still, most House-side speculation focuses on a pair of young members who made names for themselves challenging their party's leadership. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, who ran unsuccessfully against Nancy Pelosi for House minority leader in November 2016, has repeatedly appeared in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and other hot spots, telling voters and activists about his industrial hometown of Youngstown while courting big party donors.

And Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), another Pelosi critic, appeared with Ryan at a party steak fry in Des Moines in September before rallying New Hampshire volunteers.

To party leaders in the early-voting states who received holiday cards from Ryan, Kander and Swalwell, among others, the glut of potential contenders — however anonymous — provides a welcome boost after years of being ignored by major figures in the party.

“The conventional wisdom when I talk to people in Iowa is that it’s going to be the most crowded primary in decades. Everyone thinks there’s going to be a good dozen credible candidates running, and then a good dozen behind them,” said Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic committee in Polk County, which includes Des Moines.

Bagniewski said his committee has gone from a deficit of $24,000 to a $50,000-plus surplus in the past seven months largely due to the fundraising efforts of ambitious potential 2020 hopefuls.

Not one operative, fundraiser, activist or lawmaker predicted a change in course anytime soon for the long shots.

“The watchword of 2018, 2019 and 2020 will be volatility. These tectonic plates that shifted? They’re still moving,” warned former Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, who ran for president as a heavy underdog in 2004 and 2008.

“While you may see 40 candidates right now," he said. "By the time 2019 comes, you may see 80."