A close ally of former President Barack Obama, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick rejoined the private sector at Bain Capital after serving two terms. | Steven Senne/AP Photo 2020 Deval Patrick bows out of 2020 presidential run

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is calling close allies and informing them he is not running for president in 2020, sources close to the governor tell POLITICO.

Patrick informed staff and advisers of his decision Tuesday, the sources say, with an announcement to come as soon as this week.


A close ally of former President Barack Obama, the Democrat rejoined the private sector at Bain Capital after serving two terms as Massachusetts' governor. But he ramped up his political activity this fall in advance of a possible presidential bid, traveling to a handful of races across the country.

Close advisers to Patrick launched a new political action committee in August, the Reason to Believe PAC, aimed at "promoting Governor Patrick’s positive vision for Democrats to rally around in 2018."

Patrick, who was encouraged by members of Obama’s inner circle to run in 2020, met with the former president earlier this year as part of Obama's string of meetings with prospective candidates.

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Patrick had been one of several Massachusetts Democrats eyeing the primary contest. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is openly considering a run, former Secretary of State and Sen. John Kerry said he is keeping his options open, and other prospective candidates who have drawn mention include Rep. Seth Moulton and Rep. Joe Kennedy III.

Patrick‘s supporters saw him as having the right résumé to challenge Donald Trump — someone outside the fray of Washington politics, with a background in business but also as a seasoned prosecutor, a mix of experiences that could blunt some Republican attacks. His relentlessly upbeat style and lofty rhetoric could serve as an antidote to some of the bitter divisions of the Trump era, they said.

Doug Rubin, a Boston-based political strategist and Patrick's chief of staff in the governor's office, is one of the Reason to Believe PAC founders. In response to speculation Wednesday that Patrick would have been forced to go negative on Warren if both sought the nomination, Rubin said in a tweet there was "no way in hell" he would have attacked his home-state colleague "in the press or anywhere else."

"That’s never been the kind of person or candidate he is," Rubin said.

Patrick and his wife Diane Patrick also met with former First Lady Michelle Obama to discuss a potential run. Asked whether his wife would be on board regardless of his decision, Patrick laughed in a recent interview with television station NBC10.

"Are you kidding? Have you met Diane?" Patrick said.

Diane Patrick is known to be a private person, and she struggled with the transition into public life during her husband's time in the governor's office. Shortly into Patrick's first term, Diane Patrick was hospitalized for depression and exhaustion, and the governor limited his schedule to spend more time with her. At one point, Patrick even considered resigning the governorship, according to the Boston Globe.

Patrick grew up poor in Chicago but earned a scholarship to Massachusetts' Milton Academy and graduated from Harvard Law School. He later became the chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division under President Bill Clinton before taking senior counsel roles with Coca-Cola and Texaco.

He later spurned his former boss when he became an early backer of Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary over then-front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Patrick won his only two bids for elected office — he succeeded Mitt Romney as governor of Massachusetts in 2007 and earned a second term despite leading a recession-ravaged state in 2010. But his chances for national office were viewed as diminished by his decision, after leaving office, to work for Bain Capital, the same firm that Democrats used to bludgeon Romney in his own bid for president in 2012.



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