Deval Patrick Will Announce 2020 Presidential Run

Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick told senior Democrats he will enter the 2020 presidential election, according to the New York Times.

Patrick will announce his presidential run later this week in New Hampshire, where he will file paperwork to place himself on the state’s primary ballot. The former governor has acknowledged he faces a steep uphill battle in the elections, but some party leaders have encouraged him to run, the Times reported.

“If anybody is capable of catching lighting in a bottle, it’s him,” said Tim Murray, Deval’s former lieutenant governor.

Just last week, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg entered the race, signing paperwork to compete in the primary.

Patrick’s entry would throw the Democratic primary into further confusion as the already crowded field of candidates continues to expand.

Joe Biden, the frontrunner in national polls, has had to contend with a host of threats from progressive candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, as well as the surprisingly high polling of Pete Buttigieg in Iowa. Buttigieg has tried to position himself as an alternative to Biden, more moderate than Warren or Sanders.

Patrick had decided in 2018 against running for president due to his wife’s cancer diagnosis. She has since recovered.

Patrick is known for his association with former president Barack Obama, for whom he campaigned repeatedly in Massachusetts.

The former governor currently works at Bain Capital, which was co-founded and led by Utah Senator Mitt Romney. The Senator’s former company became a major issue in the 2012 presidential race between Romney and Obama.

Romney had stated he ceded control of Bain in 1999 in order to plan and oversee the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, but in 2012 the Boston Globe published Bain documents it said showed Romney was still the sole owner of the company. Bain released a statement saying Romney had “absolutely no involvement with the management or investment activities of the firm or any of its portfolio companies since his departure” in 1999.

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