2020 hopefuls juggle their day jobs with their White House hopes
More than a million people are expected to line the streets of Manhattan on Sunday for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, but the mayor of New York City won’t be there.
Bill de Blasio, the city’s mayor and a 2020 presidential hopeful, is skipping the famous New York City event to campaign in Iowa.
The mayor’s decision to miss the parade in favor of the Iowa Democratic Party Hall of Fame dinner hasn’t gone over well with some of his hometown critics, but he defended his decision during a weekly public radio interview with Brian Lehrer on WNYC.
“Every presidential candidate is going to be amongst the Democrats and it was important to be there. But my respect, my commitment to the Puerto Rican community is very, very well known in the community and it will continue deeply,” he said on the program. “When you're running for President of the United States, this is always a challenge to try and balance the schedules.”
The rigorous demands of a presidential campaign can be hard to juggle with a day job. Sixteen of the current Democratic hopefuls hold public office, and several have been forced to miss campaign events to attend to their elected positions.
In May, Sen. Kamala Harris nixed a trip to Iowa because of expected votes on a disaster funding bill that included relief for her home state of California. In January, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand rescheduled her campaign’s first news conference to accommodate a vote on Russian sanctions.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock has said his commitments at the governor’s mansion will likely keep him from qualifying for the first Democratic presidential debate. Bullock chose not to enter 2020 race until the close of his state’s legislature in mid-May, leaving little time to meet the qualifications necessary to earn a spot on the debate stage.
“I’ve been penalized for making sure people have health care, for making sure that even in a rural Republican state that we can get good things done,” Bullock said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday.
“If I had to decide between campaigning for 100,000 donors or getting 100,000 people health care, that’s the easiest decision I’ve ever had to make.”
Vaughn Hillyard contributed reporting.