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First 2020 Democratic Candidate Just Came Out of the Woodworks – And No, We're Not Talking Hillary
Townhall.com ^ | November 12, 2018 | Beth Bauman

Posted on 11/12/2018 5:40:29 PM PST by Kaslin

Former West Virginia state senator and retired U.S. Army major Richard Ojeda has made things official. He plans to run for president as a Democrat in 2020, despite a highly-anticipated, overly-packed Democratic field of contenders. Ojeda made the decision after losing his congressional bid in WV-03 last Tuesday, The Intercept reported. 

Ojeda's plan is simple: to go back to the Democratic Party's roots. He believes the Democrats can win over working people if they paint President Donald Trump out to be a populist fraud and paint a stark contract to Trump's inability to "drain the swamp."

"I have been a Democrat ever since I registered to vote, and I’ll stay a Democrat, but that’s because of what the Democratic Party was supposed to be,” he told The Intercept. “The reason why the Democratic Party fell from grace is because they become nothing more than elitist. That was it. Goldman Sachs, that’s who they were. The Democratic Party is supposed to be the party that fights for the working class, and that’s exactly what I do. I will stand with unions wholeheartedly, and that’s the problem: the Democratic Party wants to say that, but their actions do not mirror that.”

The failed congressional candidate decided to run for president after concluding that those considering a run in 2020 wouldn't be able to stand up to Trump and draw the clear contract that the Democrats need to win.

"We’re going to have quite a few lifetime politicians that are going to throw their hat in the ring, but I guarantee you there’s going to be a hell of a lot more of them than there are people like myself — that is, a working-class person that basically can relate to the people on the ground, the people that are actually struggling,” he said. “I’m not trying to throw stones at people that are rich, but once again, we will have a field that will be full of millionaires and, I’m sure, a few billionaires.”

Although Ojeda lacks political experience, he sees that as an asset, not a liability. He believes it makes him more relatable to working class folks, like those he hopes to represent. 

From The Intercept:

The Democratic Party’s coalition is fueled by women and an increasingly diverse base. When I asked if a white man from West Virginia could understand what was behind the Black Lives Matter movement, he argued that his experience living in and among the working class — which is heavily made up of black and Hispanic people — gives him insight into that struggle. “I can understand it far better than the millionaires and billionaires sitting around the conference tables in Washington, D.C. That’s a fact. Guess what? I’ve worked side by side with those people; I’ve served in the military with the people that lived in those communities,” he said. “I know far more about that life than [elites in Washington] know about that life. So when someone stands up that has a bank account that’s got $50 or $60 million in it, I personally could care less what they have to say about how they’re gonna … how they know what a single parent who is trying to put food on the table feels. Because they don’t.”

Although he lacks political experience, Ojeda believes his experience in the Military would provide him with the necessary tools to create a political organization and structure that could be successful. 

While he enlisted in the Army as a private out of high school, he said, he rose through the ranks to oversee a vast operation. “When I started in the military, I started as a private, the lowest rank you could possibly go, but I was also the chief of operations for the 20th Airborne engineers in Iraq, where we were in control of over 7,000 engineers. And every single operation that went on throughout the entire country of Iraq went through my JOC, and I was the chief of operations,” he said. The military helped put Ojeda through college and graduate school, and he now uses his experience overseas to argue against militarism and in favor of a diplomatic approach.

Other likely 2020 contenders include Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Kristen Gillibrand, billionaire Michael Bloomberg and former Vice President Joe Biden.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: 2020election; demonratparty; election2020; presidenttrump; richardojeda; westvirginia
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To: Kaslin

He will have all the success Jim Webb did in 2016.


21 posted on 11/12/2018 7:20:03 PM PST by rhinohunter (Dear Mr. Trump: I'm still not tired of winning)
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To: Kaslin

“Ojeda’s plan is simple: to go back to the Democratic Party’s roots. “

Disaster. 600,000 people died the last time Democrats insisted on staying true to their roots

And we watched the miniseries in the 1970’s


22 posted on 11/12/2018 8:58:00 PM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZGw2M)
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To: Kaslin

You can bet Hillary will have many stooges in it so that her 22% tally will comprise the majority. Look for many surprise names that make you wonder what are they thinking(?). Sort of like McCain, with so many conservative splitters that left his 30% the winning margin because he had more than anyone else.


23 posted on 11/12/2018 9:06:52 PM PST by Sir Bangaz Cracka (Sweet Saint Skittles bounced dat ole white Craka head off da sidewalk causin he was real skeered.)
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To: rlmorel

I bet he was a “Fobbit” during his deployments.


24 posted on 11/12/2018 9:12:26 PM PST by 2CAVTrooper (Democrats... BETRAYING America since 1828.)
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To: rlmorel

Yeah I saw them at the big GoE counter protest in Washington DC back in 2006.

Most of them never completed their initial enlistments. They we’re kicked out in basic for failure to adapt, or got the Big Chicken Dinner.

Heck, I had ID’d one of the antiwar traitors who had gotten kicked out because he was in my unit.


25 posted on 11/12/2018 9:24:10 PM PST by 2CAVTrooper (Democrats... BETRAYING America since 1828.)
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To: rlmorel

Yes, I read about this strategy quite a long time ago. People with military experience with ties to the far left politicians/swamp critters.

So while POTUS tries to drain the swamp, they send out their baby swamp critters to come back and repopulate the swamp.

Also Soros trying to get control of each Sec. of State for the battle ground states.


26 posted on 11/12/2018 10:43:26 PM PST by greeneyes
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To: Kaslin

27 posted on 11/12/2018 11:33:51 PM PST by Tilting
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Goodluck to this a$$hole winning the Democratic commie socialist nomination
28 posted on 11/13/2018 1:51:58 AM PST by KavMan
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To: 2CAVTrooper

When I heard this term for the first time (Fobbit) I discerned that this had a little bit of a different sting to the person it was being applied to, than that of being called an “REMF”. Is that true?

I got the impression the person it was directed at was either lazy or a coward...or both.


29 posted on 11/13/2018 4:22:25 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: 2CAVTrooper
I was down there for the GOE...warmed my heart to see all those vets together.

We saw one guy, over near the side of the Lincoln Memorial, a Marine in his blues, on the anti-war side. All the others were hippie wanna-be types, but this guy wore his uniform.

There was something about him that drew an extra level of derision from many of the vets there.

30 posted on 11/13/2018 4:25:43 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: Kaslin

It makes no difference to me. Democrats are amoral at best and generally immoral. Even if they do not directly lie, cheat or steal, they condone it when fellow Democrats do it. I would be perfectly happy if they divided our country into Republican States and Democrat states. Of course, Democrats would not be allowed to visit Republican States and Republican would not want to visit Democrat States.


31 posted on 11/13/2018 4:26:25 AM PST by Machavelli (True God)
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To: greeneyes

I remember reading about the Secretary of State initiative some years ago, and thought to myself: “Huh. That is downright scummy and something the communists would be downright familiar and comfortable with.”

I had that exact same feeling yesterday when listing to Dan Bongino. He was talking about the election issues down in Florida where they are clearly trying to steal the election, but he said don’t get hung up on DeSantis and Scott...those aren’t who it is really about, although the Left would be thrilled to snare those seats.

Bongino said it was about the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture race between Matt Caldwell (R) and Nikki Fried (D).

Huh? Really? I was completely baffled as to why that would be the real key, as Bongino said that the other two races really weren’t in peril...they were serving as cover for this effort to steal the Commissioner of Agriculture race. It made no sense to me, I thought “What, is this so someone can manipulate orange futures like the guys in the movie “Trading Places” or something?

But Bongino teasingly said that “there is something else the Ag Commissioner does that is important...that office oversees gun permits and regulations...”

WTF? Really? But if what he is saying is true, then yeah, it is a battle, because she is a far left, avowed gun grabber. I would have never thought of that. But it reminded me of the indirect approach favored by the left that catches us off guard, as the Soros Secretary of State initiative did.


32 posted on 11/13/2018 4:38:29 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: rktman

He’s no warrior. A glorified paper shuffler with an over inflated sense of grandeur. That posting in Iraq was his high water mark.


33 posted on 11/13/2018 4:49:27 AM PST by TADSLOS (I hate Russian Dolls. They are so full of themselves.)
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To: Kaslin
He believes the Democrats can win over working people if they paint President Donald Trump out to be a populist fraud and paint a stark contract to Trump's inability to "drain the swamp."

He'll need a LOT of paint!


OF course; there will be TONS of old newsprint that can be used to make a papermache 'straw man'; first.

34 posted on 11/13/2018 5:32:41 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: rlmorel

At least Golden boy actually served in combat. Soros and Steyer money basically bought a congressional seat in SW Pennsylvania for a Marine Corps veteran whose entire service consisted of 14 months as a desk jockey in Okinawa.


35 posted on 11/13/2018 6:09:42 AM PST by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: Vigilanteman

Ugh. That is both disgusting and discouraging.


36 posted on 11/13/2018 6:56:19 AM PST by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: woweeitsme

He believes the Democrats can win over working people if they paint President Donald Trump out to be a populist fraud and paint a stark contract to Trump’s inability to “drain the swamp.”

Yeah, that should work...


37 posted on 11/13/2018 7:03:39 AM PST by nikos1121 (With Trump, we have our own Age of Pericles)
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To: TADSLOS

Lookin’ at the lettuce his uni has on it one would think. They were not nearly as generous back when I was in at “awarding” things. Well unless you got a nasty splinter wound while doing river patrol into norther Cambodia at Christmas time. ;-)


38 posted on 11/13/2018 7:35:02 AM PST by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH? #My2nd)
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To: nikos1121

Well, it appears that the fake bomber Cesar Sayoc worked to an extent. As far as I know, the Democrats will eventually turn the country over, it was just a shock that Trump won, because they were just mistakenly certain that the nation had turned Blue by majority in 2016 and many just didn’t show up out of sheer confidence. This year, they made sure to ask everyone they could to turn out.


39 posted on 11/13/2018 8:35:09 AM PST by Morpheus2009
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To: Kaslin

Has he talked to Lyndon LaRouche about buying some surplus equipment or getting some advice?


40 posted on 11/13/2018 11:43:52 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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