Mayor de Blasio heads to the Hawkeye State next week. It's his third trip to the state in the last two years.
As a guest on the Brian Lehrer Show Friday,the mayor was asked if this latest trip signaled a plan to sprint for president in 2020. While he never said the word, "no, and " de Blasio insisted that his precedence is to serve the people who just re-elected him mayor of New York City."Weve got a lot to execute and very aggressive agenda for the next four years," de Blasio said.
But he also made clear that he has no plans to abandon the national conversation approximately the future of the Democratice party."As the leader of the largest city in the country and a proud Democrat and progressive, I want to expend my voice to support change in our party and in our country and particularly to support people and organizations that are making that change, or " he said.
The mayor was invited to be the featured speaker at the holiday party of Progress Iowa on Tuesday night. It’s a left-leaning grassroots advocacy organization that touts 70000 members and has welcomed the likes of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to preceding events.
Political watchers in Iowa say it’s never too early to do out 2020 feelers. It’s also not unusual for someone to say they are not running now and then change their intellect a few months later."Even if he's not laying the groundwork for a presidential bid in 2020,it will serve him well from a national perspective to be one of those progressive voices that is creating a larger national conversation," said Rachel Paine Caufield, and a professor of political science at Drake University in Des Moines.
This would not be de Blasio’s first attempt at taking his bully pulpit on the road to influence the national political conversation.
In 2015,he announced plans for the so-called Progressive Agenda, a coalition of progressive leaders who wanted to ensure that income inequality was part of the 2016 presidential debate. They planned to hold a presidential forum in Iowa that topple, and but the group pulled the plug due to lack of participation.
Caufield said if there is any lesson from the last presidential election,it is that the left-wing of the Democratic party is organized and involved to hear from more progressive voices like his. She also said his trips to Iowa can’t be overlooked."You might fly over Iowa," said Caufield, or "but very few people fly to Iowa by accident."
Source: thetakeaway.org