Landrieu successor cool on his potential 2020 bid
NEW ORLEANS — Former Mayor Mitch Landrieu has stirred speculation for months that he harbors presidential aspirations, thanks to his success as a Democratic officeholder in a deep red state and his eloquent pleas to bring down Confederate monuments.
But Landrieu’s successor in the mayor’s office here sounds conspicuously cool to the idea of him mounting a 2020 bid, and spent the weekend sounding out other White House hopefuls who she said would make “great candidates.”
“There are a lot of good people throughout this country who have been on the ground and who haven’t been talking it, but they’ve been walking it. And I would love to see them surface at a level to where we see them in 2020,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell told NBC News.
In an interview during the left-leaning Netroots Nation gathering over the weekend, Cantrell said that she had a good relationship with Landrieu, having partnered with him on various issues while she served on the city council during his two terms as mayor, from 2010-2018. Cantrell joined the city council in 2012.
Pressed as to whether Landrieu specifically should be part of the 2020 conversation, Cantrell demurred.
“I think he has an opportunity. And I would love to see that opportunity move forward, along with others,” she said.
Cantrell gave a passionate address at the Netroots conference about the significance of her 2017 victory, becoming the first woman elected mayor in New Orleans’ 300 year history. It was a tribute, she said, to the power of grassroots organizing and the mobilized progressive movement. This year’s conference put a spotlight on Cantrell and other newly-elected African American mayors, especially those in deeply red states.
Landrieu, who is white, did not attend the Netroots gathering. He did participate in a meeting convened by the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way weeks earlier that focused on how Democrats should appeal to the middle.
Asked what would set her mayorship apart from Landrieu’s, Cantrell said “inclusion.”
“Listening,” she said. “Because people are the world’s greatest experts on where they live and what resources they need to be connected to. And that’s what I do best. And not only listening, but that has to at the end of the day turn into real action. And that’s what I’m about.”
Cantrell met with several of the potential 2020 hopefuls who spoke at the Netroots gathering, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio. Cantrell said they would all be “great candidates,” but seemed particularly focused on the female hopefuls.
“I do believe that the spirit of the woman is real. And we’re seeing that demonstrated again throughout this country,” she said. “Women have that natural ability to be ego-less — not focused on themselves but focused on people. That’s what I would love to see emerge out of all of this.”