Yesterday we learned that California Senator Kamala Harris ended her campaign for President. As a resident of California I have mixed feelings about this. I believe she has represented us well in the Senate but I wished she had spent more time as our Senator. The Democratic race for 2020 is crowded and it’s a given that good candidates would be pushed aside.

I don’t know who will win the nomination next summer but I pray it’s a Democrat who will win in 2020 and 2024. I hope Kamala either finds a place in the next administration or runs in 2024. She has my support.

We Democrats didn’t expect to lose the 2016 election. I spent most of the fall of 2016 telling people that there was no way Donald Trump would defeat Hillary Clinton and we didn’t need to worry about being led by a narcissistic sociopath. I was wrong.

Given that it’s no surprise that several democrats are clamoring to make certain he isn’t reelected. I know this makes people nervous as we democrats have a habit of circular firing squads and they fear that we won’t all unify behind whoever wins the nomination.

I don’t think that’s true. I speak for myself, but I think I speak for others, when I say that I care for nothing more than returning sanity and empathy to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Anyone who is running for the democrat nominee will get my vote.

That said, I recognize that at some point some candidates need to understand that they have no path to the nomination and should step aside. Earlier this month Beto O’Rourke suspended his campaign. He famously ran against Texas Senator Ted Cruz and nearly won. But his Presidential campaign simply didn’t get traction. I liked him and his platform and I wish him well.

I also hope he doesn’t walk away from public service.

In June I listed the candidates who were included in the first Democratic debate. As I said at the time in previous elections I listed anyone who announced his or her candidacy and had a web page. Frankly, it drove me crazy as those two criteria included a large population of people who just weren’t adequately medicated.

This year I decided to list only Democrats (as the Republicans have lined up for President Trump’s re-election) and only those Democrats who did well enough to be included in the debates. The first round included 20 candidates split over two days: July 30th and 31st.

Since then a few candidates dropped out and the Democrats have tightened the rules. Today we learned that only 10 candidates have qualified for the next debate on September 13th.

Here’s the list:

• Joe Biden
• Cory Booker
• Pete Buttigieg
• Julien Castro
• Kamala Harris
• Amy Klobuchar
• Beto O’Rourke
• Bernie Sanders
• Elizabeth Warren
• Andrew Yang

Some of those not on this list haven’t given up their campaign, and I know their exclusion angers them, but we need to admit that their chances of winning the nomination defy reality.

As for me, I subscribe to the NPR Politics podcast. Each week they interview a candidate and I find these interviews fascinating. I recommend that everyone who reads this subscribe to this podcast.

Stay tuned.

We all knew that the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination would winnow, and a few days ago we saw who withdrew first: Eric Swalwell. He’s a good guy but was never able to find his voice in a crowded and rowdy field. I wish him well in his continued service to our nation.

Almost immediately we heard that someone else joined the race: Tom Steyer. I haven’t placed him in my “official” list for a few reasons. First, as I write this he doesn’t have an official website. He’s been a vocal critic of the President and has a site calling for the President’s impeachment but it’s not a campaign site. Second, in my previous post I promised that I would only include those candidates who the Democratic Party allowed in the debates. I have no idea where Tom stands on this.

Film at 11.

Every four years I follow the election of our next President. As I write this we are 500 days from our next election and I’ve decided it’s time to start the countdown to the election.

In past election cycles I’ve listed candidates from several parties and several people who ran as independents. I’ve given up on that. My quest for fairness and transparencies required that I slog through web pages of nut cases who not only had no chance to win, but also showed all of us that you should always take prescribed medication, even if don’t think you need to.

The election of 2020 will tell us if President Trump should be elected to another term. As an incumbent Republican he faces little opposition. So far his only opposition is Bill Weld, a libertarian from Massachusetts.

On the other hand, Democrats are lining up to oppose him. A little less than a year and half from the election 24 candidates have announced that they are running to defeat him. Twenty of them qualified to debate each other yesterday and today.

I’ve made the executive decision (because, let’s face it: it’s my we page) that I’ll only list the 20 candidates who qualified for the first round of debates. Here they are:

• Michael Bennet
• Joe Biden
• Bill de Blasio
• Cory Booker
• Pete Buttigieg
• Julien Castro
• John Delaney
• Tulsi Gabbard
• Kirsten Gillibrand
• Kamala Harris
• John Hickenlooper
• Jay Inslee
• Amy Klobuchar
• Beto O’Rourke
• Tim Ryan
• Bernie Sanders
• Eric Swallwell
• Elizabeth Warren
• Marianne Williamson
• Andrew Yang