Democrats hit the campaign trail across the US this weekend

Former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean shared his thoughts about ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and his potential 2020 presidential run.

Here’s his advice for Schultz, as told to CNN’s Ana Cabrera on Saturday:

Watch:

On his second day in Iowa, Sen. Cory Booker warned his fellow 2020 presidential hopefuls about trash talking as they duke it out over the next year and a half for the Democratic nomination.

“We as a party, whoever becomes the nominee, have to unite behind that nominee. And I want to see how the nominees treat each another,” the New Jersey Democrat told the crowd at Iowa River Brewing on Saturday. “Because if we start trash talking between each other, I hope everybody here turns away from that candidate. How you campaign is how you govern.”

Booker, the former mayor of Newark, added later: “Watch how we talk about each other, but also watch the rhetoric that we have. Some people in this election will tell you that we need to fight fire with fire. Well, I ran a fire department. That’s not a really constructive strategy.”

The 2016 Republican primary was marred by personal attacks and lots of name calling. For one, Donald Trump nicknamed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, “Lyin’ Ted,” and Cruz in return called Trump a “sniveling coward,” “a narcissist” and “pathological liar.”

Democratic presidential hopeful and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker participated in a community town hall on Friday in Waterloo, Iowa, after which he greeted supporters. Here are some of the things he talked about:

Why he’s running for president

Booker said he’s running for president because he believes “right now, people are surrendering to cynicism about our ability to solve our own problems.”

“That politicians are weakening us by pitting us against each other, I believe that we are going to be a great nation, not because of what we’re against, but what we’re for,” he said.

Incarceration

Booker said US prisons are filled with low income people, referencing Brian Stephenson saying that “we treat people better if they’re rich and guilty than poor and innocent.”

“And most Americans don’t know this, we have tens and tens of thousands of people in jails right now who haven’t even had a trial yet. There are children in solitary confinement which other countries call torture because of the mental health problems they have,” he said.

Medicare for All

Booker said he supported “Medicare for All,” but said it won’t pass in the current Senate.

He went on to say that “we will get it.”

On Saturday, Booker visited Des Moines, Iowa. There, he took a question on what differentiates himself from the 2020 field.

At first, he joked, “haircut, I think, maybe might be one thing.” Booker went on to admit, “I have friends in this race, people I’ve stood side-by-side with in the saddle,” offering shout-outs to fellow mayors Pete Buttigieg and Julián Castro.

For his part, Booker says he has a “track record of taking on the toughest problems in our country and actually showing that they can be solved.”

Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg was in Johnston, Iowa, today speaking with voters. The young Democratic mayor launched an exploratory committee last month for a 2020 presidential bid. He took questions and addressed various issues including:

On Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s black face scandal

“I think the governor has lost confidence, and needs to step aside. I think when he stepped forward and tried to explain it, things actually got worse and more confusing.”

On sexual assault allegations against Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax

“I believe, unfortunately, the Lieutenant Governor can no longer serve, you know, these are incredibly disturbing allegations, multiple, credible allegations, and I think that we as a party need to demonstrate that there’s not a space for that.”

On Elizabeth Warren officially launching presidential campaign

“You know I think it’s great to have as many candidates as possible with as many tones and styles and ideas and messengers as we can, especially in a moment where the (Democratic) Party is trying to figure out who and what we are for the future.”

On Green New Deal

“Honestly, the Green New Deal is more a set of goals right now than it is a fully developed set of policies, and it’s going to take a while to show exactly what that would look like and how we’re going to pay for it. But I believe that what has been offered so far sets the right general parameters for where we should head. And it’s also a healthy general reminder of the level of ambition, intellectual ambition that our policy proposals should have.”

On climate change

“To me climate is a security issue, and I feel that way because most of the emergencies I’ve had to respond to. Most of the times I found myself seated in the emergency operations center in South Bend, in the middle of the night, have had to do with extreme weather, which is exactly the sort of thing we were warned about in the 70’s if we didn’t change it. … I get that climate is not weather. But they’re related. They’re intimately related and there’s no question that we’re seeing more weather extremes as a consequence of the climate change that we were warned about.”

On President Trump and America’s future

“I think part of how this President got where he was, was based on the idea that resentment and nostalgia were the only formula for the industrial Midwest. Whereas we actually see communities in the heartland that are changing our future and working toward a better future, by recognizing, admitting that it won’t be like the past, acknowledging that that’s okay, and then figuring out which elements of our past we do want to maintain and recover and build on. Nationally I believe that we are at a crossroads. Even now I think we might be underreacting in terms of the seriousness of what’s happening – not just in policy – but in our whole social and political culture, just the kind of country we’re becoming.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, in her presidential kickoff rally said, ”corruption is a cancer on our democracy. And we will get rid of it only with strong medicine – with real, structural reform. Our fight is to change the rules so that our government, our economy, and our democracy work for everyone.”

Declaring she is not afraid of a “hard fight”, Warren told her rally, “Sure, there will be plenty of doubters and cowards and armchair critics this time around. But we learned a long time ago that you don’t get what you don’t fight for.”

Outside the site of a 1912 labor strike led by women, she said “no, I am not afraid of a fight. Not even a hard fight. When the women of Everett Mill walked away from their machines and out into the cold January air all those years ago, they knew it wouldn’t be easy. But they also knew what was at stake for themselves and their families. And they weren’t going to let anyone tell them it was “too hard.”

During her presidential announcement speech, Warren touched on several financial issues, including stresses on the middle-class, saying the “same rich guys have been waging class warfare against hard-working people for decades.”

She later said: “To protect their economic advantages, the rich and powerful have rigged our political system as well. They’ve bought off or bullied politicians in both parties to make sure Washington is always on their side. Some of them have even tried to buy their way into public office. “ 

Warren also told the crowd that she’s, “tired of hearing that we can’t afford to make real investments in child care, college, and Medicare for All. Can’t afford things that help create economic opportunity for families.”

“I’m tired of hearing that we can’t afford to make investments in things like housing and opioid treatment. Can’t afford things that address rural neglect or the legacy of racial discrimination. I’m tired of hearing what we can’t afford because it is just not true,” she said.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand voiced her support for the Green New Deal, calling it an “excellent framework” for tackling economic challenges.

The New York senator and 2020 presidential candidate was speaking at a women’s brunch in Columbia, South Carolina.

Gillibrand also stressed the importance of putting a “price on carbon,” saying it would drive innovation.

“If you tell an inventor or entrepreneur you’re getting a lower tax rate or you’re going to have lower costs if you make sure your technology is efficient and energy efficient, you will spur growth. It’s how you use market forces to get to where we need to go.”

Warren tells the crowd at her Lawrence, Massachusetts, rally that “our government works just great for oil companies and defense contractors, great for private prisons, great for Wall Street banks and hedge funds, it’s just not working for anyone else.”

President Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, issued a statement on Saturday in light of Warren’s announcement, saying Warren “has already been exposed as a fraud by the Native Americans she impersonated and disrespected to advance her professional career, and the people of Massachusetts she deceived to get elected.”

It’s the first time the Trump re-election campaign has put out a formal statement on a candidate entering the race.

Here’s Parscale’s full statement:

A source familiar with the President’s thinking says the campaign statement was designed to drive up donations among Trump supporters because “hitting Warren results in a fundraising bonanza.”

The source says the campaign believes they will see a spike in donations because of the unpopularity of Warren’s progressive agenda among Trump’s base.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, at a rally outside a mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, has officially announced she is running for the Democratic nomination for President.

Warren told the crowd, “It won’t be enough to just undo the terrible acts of this administration. We can’t afford to just tinker around the edges – a tax credit here, a regulation there. Our fight is for big, structural change. This is the fight of our lives. The fight to build an America where dreams are possible, an America that works for everyone. I am in that fight all the way. And that is why I stand here today: to declare that I am a candidate for President of the United States of America.”

She said, “Because the man in the White House is not the cause of what’s broken, he’s just the latest – and most extreme – symptom of what’s gone wrong in America. A product of a rigged system that props up the rich and the powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else. And so, once he’s gone, we can’t pretend that all of this never happened.”

We’re still about 21 months out from the 2020 election, but the field of presidential contenders is already very crowded.

If it feels like people are getting into the race particularly early this season, you’re not totally wrong.

In 2016, the first major candidate to get into the race was Ted Cruz on March 23, 2015. The eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton announced on April 12, 2015. And Donald Trump, the person who went on to be President, announced his candidacy on June 16, 2015.

In 2008, the race kicked off a little earlier for the Democrats.

Hillary Clinton did an “I’m in” video on January 20, 2007. Barack Obama made his announcement on Feb. 10, 2007. (The GOP nominee in ’08, John McCain, announced on April 25, 2007.)

Gone are the patriotic single-letter presidential logos popularized over the past decade.

In a crowded race without a definitive early frontrunner, 2020 logos so far seem like an effort to build name recognition, their color schemes optimized to stand out against other campaign signs on the sides of roads in Des Moines or Manchester.

If there are any emerging design trends among the initial 2020 campaign logos, it’s the use of words over symbols, and the embrace of color outside of the traditional red, white, and blue.

Case in point:

Campaign logos aren’t as important as a candidates’ positions on the big issues or their voting records. But through branding, candidates are saying something about themselves, their campaign, and their vision for America.

Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who served in the Navy during the war in Afghanistan, has launched an exploratory committee for a 2020 presidential bid.

In his campaign announcement video, the Democratic mayor talks about how he turned around what had been referred to as a “dying city.” He would like to do the same for the country, even if he knows the odds are against him, he said.

Buttigieg has little national name recognition and could struggle to get attention in a crowded field including heavyweights like Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

“We are not going to be the most established, we are not going to be the most well-funded, I am obviously not stepping onto this stage as the most famous person in this conversation,” Buttigieg said in a news conference in January.

“But I belong to a party whose characteristic has always been to look for fresh voices, new leadership and big ideas, and I think that is what 2020 is going to be about.”

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota is expected to announce her plans for the 2020 presidential election on Sunday.

Klobuchar is inviting the public and the press to join her in a park in downtown Minneapolis to make her announcement. Fueling speculation is the fact that she is headed back to Iowa in two weeks to headline the Ankeny Area Democrats Winter Banquet and Fundraiser.

Klobuchar recently won her Senate re-election bid in Minnesota with 60% of the vote, visiting all 87 Minnesota counties during the campaign, including 42 that went for Trump in 2016. She is seen by some observers as a Democratic candidate who can win in the Midwest, recapturing the states that flipped to President Donald Trump in 2016.

Should she enter the 2020 presidential race, she would be one of seven women and one of five US senators seeking the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Her prosecutorial streak and fairly moderate record (which may be rare among 2020 contenders) could give her a unique lane to the nomination.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York got into the race in January, casting herself as a leading voice for women in national politics.

Her campaign video highlighted her work on the 9/11 health bill, women’s rights and fighting President Donald Trump.

Gillibrand, who was elected for her second full term in the Senate in 2018, rose to national prominence in recent years as a forceful proponent of the #MeToo movement and fierce critic of Trump. People close to Gillibrand have indicated the senator will run a campaign centered on gender issues, something she has championed in the House and Senate.

However, critics also point to Gillibrand’s long voting record in the House that is considerably more conservative than her Senate votes. (She’s already trying to clean up that record; she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in January that her past positions on guns and immigration were wrong.)

Gillibrand enters the 2020 field with $10.5 million in the bank, a sizable war chest that would make her one of the most financially formidable candidates.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is contemplating a bid for the presidency, heads to Florida this weekend for two events.

The Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat hasn’t formally announced his candidacy yet, but would self-fund his potential campaign, he said last month. According to Forbes estimates, Bloomberg is worth more than $44 billion, spending his own money on his three successful bids for mayor.

Bloomberg has put his financial muscle behind issues including climate change, gun safety, education and immigration. In recent years, the billionaire has spent at least $500 million of his own money to advance those issues, according to a Bloomberg spokesman.

Some in the Democratic Party have urged Democrats to reject candidates who use super PACs or self-fund their campaigns.

“No to the billionaires, whether they are self-funding or whether they’re funding PACs. We are the Democratic Party, and that is the party of the people,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts last month.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is also considering a 2020 run, has also routinely hit the “billionaire class.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who will formally announce her candidacy tonight, is one of the most recognizable names in the presidential race so far.

Warren became a progressive star by taking on Wall Street after the 2007 financial crisis and, more recently, President Trump.

Warren is a searing critic of the President, and Trump has responded by openly mocking her Native American heritage and referring to her as “Pocahontas.” Her decision in October to respond to Trump and other critics by releasing the results of a DNA test aimed at proving her ancestry fell flat with many Democrats and overshadowed her midterm message.

Despite this controversy, Warren remains a potent figure in the party. She’s a liberal’s liberal with anti-corporatist credo and an ability to raise tens of millions of dollars.

At 49, Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey is the youngest among his Senate colleagues running for president.

Booker chose the first day of Black History Month to launch his campaign, timing that nods to Booker’s own heritage and suggests he will put it at the center of his pitch to voters.

Here’s what you need to know:

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat weighing a run for president, announced last month he will launch a listening tour of early primary states based on his “dignity of work” message that he used to win his third straight statewide election in a political battleground state.

“I want to hear from people around (the country) and I want this conversation and this dignity of work tour to encourage my colleagues running for president that this should be the narrative,” Brown said in an interview with MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes.”

If you’re looking for a credible dark horse, the Ohio senator is it. While Brown isn’t in the race yet, his announcement that he is embarking on an early state listening tour suggests he is likely to be a candidate.

And Brown has a proven record of winning votes in a swing state in the Midwest, a long record of liberal advocacy and an authentic populist streak. But can he raise the money to compete with the big candidates? That’s the big question.

Kirsten Gillibrand swings into South Carolina

Kirsten Gillibrand starts a three-day visit in the key early primary state of South Carolina with a visit to a meet and greet with South Carolina State University students in Orangeburg at 3:30 p.m ET.

Cory Booker goes to Iowa

Cory Booker is making his first trip to Iowa since announcing his presidential campaign. He is kicking off a miniature campaign tour, visiting two key early primary states in four days. He will start his first day in Iowa with a meet and greet in Mason City at 10:15 a.m. ET. He will then attend a community roundtable in Waterloo at 2:30 p.m. ET. Booker then makes a speech in Cedar Rapids at 6:30 p.m. ET. Finally, he attends a meet and greet in Iowa City at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Michael Bloomberg stops in Florida

Michael Bloomberg makes two appearances in Florida. The first is a climate change speech in Orlando alongside the mayor Buddy Dyer at 10:15am. The second is a speech on immigration at the Americans for Immigrant Justice annual dinner in Miami at 6:00 p.m. ET. 

Sherrod Brown tours New Hampshire

Sherrod Brown continues his pseudo-presidential “Dignity of Work” tour with a two-day swing in New Hampshire. He attends a roundtable in Hampton at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Pete Buttigieg hits Iowa

Pete Buttigieg makes a handful of stops in Iowa ahead of his nationwide book tour. He attends two meet and greets in Ames, the first at 11:30 a.m. ET and the second at 12:30 p.m. ET. He then meets with students in Grinnell at 3:00 p.m. ET. Finally, he attends a meet and greet in Ankeny at 7:15 p.m. ET. 

Elizabeth Warren formally announces her candidacy

Warren will throw her hat in the ring from Lawrence, Massachusetts, at 11 a.m. ET, before headed to New Hampshire and Iowa. 

Amy Klobuchar formally announces her candidacy

Senator Amy Klobuchar said she would make “a major announcement” on Sunday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is expected to be the launch of her campaign.