Hickenlooper Drops Out (And A Dozen More Should Do That)

(Photo of John Hickenlooper, from Wikipedia, is by Gage Skidmore.)

On Thursday, former governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2020 election. Although still popular in his home state, Hickenlooper had been unable to get his presidential campaign going on a national level.

It was obvious that he was going to be barred from the next Democratic debate, with his support continuing to hover around the 1% mark.

But his political career is not over. Many want him to run for the U.S. Senate and unseat Republican Cory Gardner. There have been some Colorado polls showing he would have a significant lead over Gardner if he enters the race.

I hope he does choose to run for the Senate. While I did not support his presidential candidacy, I think he could be a valuable asset for Democrats in the Senate.

Hickenlooper was smart. He could see the writing on the wall, and decided not to waste the time and in a hopeless effort. About a dozen or so more Democratic candidates should do the same. About half of the remaining candidates are unable to get above 1% in any of the polls. They are wasting the voters time with their Quixotic campaigns -- and they should drop out so Democrats can get down to the serious business of judging the real candidates (the ones who have at least an outside chance of getting the nomination).

Note the chart below from RealClearPolitics. Only 9 candidates have an average in recent polls of more than 1% -- and only 6 have an average of more than 2%.