8) Cory Booker

Website: CoryBooker.com
The former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Booker is running on a values-heavy message of love, unity, and “a revival of civic grace.” The 50-year-old had an excellent debate in Detroit, besting Biden in an exchange over mass incarceration and the 1994 crime bill Biden championed. Booker has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate, and he’s changed the conversation around federal cannabis legalization with his proposed Marijuana Justice Act. “I get angry when I see people taking just one step — legalizing marijuana — without doing anything to address past harms,” he told Rolling Stone in a recent interview. But his outward liberalism has been undercut at times by connections to Wall Street and Big Pharma. He’s raising enough money to stay in the hunt, including $6 million in the third quarter.
Signature Policy: Baby bonds. Booker would target the wealth gap in America by seeding “American Opportunity Accounts” for children that would allow kids from the poorest families to enter adulthood with a nest egg of up to $46,000 to invest in education, home ownership, or retirement. (Read more about Booker’s platform.)
Signature Apology: Booker has disavowed the tough-on-crime approach he championed in his early days as Newark mayor. In his book United, Booker credits his then-chief of staff for delivering a wake-up call on racial disparities in policing: “He told me that if I had so quickly forgotten my own life experiences, I had my head up my large black posterior region.”
RS Coverage: Why Cory Booker Cares So Much About Legal Weed

9) Tulsi Gabbard

Website: Tulsi2020.com
Gabbard, 38, is the first Hindu to serve in the House of Representatives. She’s pitching herself to progressives (including with a bill to legalize marijuana) and to pacifists: The Iraq veteran is running against endless wars. Gabbard has shown poise on the debate stage and gained an enthusiastic grassroots following. But there’s something off. Her campaign continues to get an odd signal boost from Russian propaganda networks and the Putin government itself. In October, Hillary Clinton accused her of being a Russian “asset.” Gabbard denounced Clinton as “queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party.” The free publicity has led to a small surge in the polls that qualified Gabbard for the November debate.
Signature Policy: Gabbard has staked her campaign in opposition to wars of regime change. But her foreign policy credentials are unsettling: She visited Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2017 on a secret “fact-finding” mission and dismissed his opposition — across the board — as terrorists. (Read more about Gabbard’s platform.)
Signature Apology: Into adulthood, Gabbard espoused virulently anti-LGBTQ views. She released an apology video saying, “In my past, I said and believed things that were wrong.”
RS Coverage: Who’s Afraid of Tulsi Gabbard?

10) Tom Steyer

Website: TomSteyer.com
The progressive billionaire best known for leading an impeachment crusade against President Trump threw his hat into the crowded 2020 ring on July 9th, promising to betray his class and wrest political power from America’s moneyed interests. Steyer has no shortage of cash to help overcome his late start, spending nearly $48 million on his national introduction. 
Signature Policy: Steyer’s Need to Impeach campaign has signed up more than 8 million Americans seeking Trump’s constitutional removal. (This list could provide Steyer with a formidable grassroots base.) “It’s important to stand up for the American democracy,” Steyer told Rolling Stone about the fight for impeachment. “We believe fighting against a reckless and lawless president is not something that will turn off voters.”
RS Coverage: A Conversation With Tom Steyer, the Liberal Billionaire Bankrolling Trump’s Impeachment

11) Julián Castro

Website: JulianForTheFuture.com
Castro’s stage presence and command of the issues across four debates underscored why Hillary nearly picked him as her 2016 running mate. But after failing to qualify for the fifth debate, the field’s only Latino contender, 44, is struggling to remain viable. He is going all in on Nevada, while denouncing the structural racism of a nomination process that gives so much power to Iowa and New Hampshire. His “People First” policy agenda earned high marks for offering a sweeping immigration plan that would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants; an education overhaul that would reinvest in public education from pre-K through college; and a $5 billion plan to “eliminate lead poisoning as a major public health threat.”
Signature Policy: Pre-K for USA, nationwide universal prekindergarten programs, are the centerpiece of his People First education plan. “Investing in early childhood education isn’t just the right thing to do on behalf of our children,” Castro says. “It’s an investment that we can’t afford not to make.” (Read more about Castro’s platform.)
Signature Apology: In 2016, Castro apologized for dissing Trump and talking up Clinton while on the job as HUD secretary, a violation of the Hatch Act. “When an error is made — even an inadvertent one — the error should be acknowledged,” Castro said. “I made one here.”
RS Coverage: Julián Castro: If Democrats Don’t Elevate Voters of Color, ‘Why the Hell Are We Democrats in the First Place?’

12) Michael Bloomberg

Website: MikeBloomberg.com
The 77-year-old former mayor of New York surveyed the 2020 Democratic field and decided he’s just what’s missing. Bloomberg launched his campaign in late November, shocking and awing America with a national ad campaign costing more than $30 million, and plugging himself as a “Jobs Creator. Leader. Problem Solver.” Stranger things have happened, but it’s hard to imagine a centrist former Republican who backed George W. Bush in 2004, embraced racist police tactics as mayor, and remains skeptical of progressive economic policy winning the nomination of today’s left-leaning Democratic Party.
Signature Policy: Bloomberg is fully in step with today’s Democrats on gun regulation. He has used some of his massive fortune to fund groups including “Everytown for Gun Safety,” which advocates for sensible gun regulations in a country that desperately needs them.
Signature Apology: When he decided not to run in the spring, Bloomberg mocked Joe Biden for launching with an “apology tour.” Bloomberg has now embarked on one of his own. A staffer apologized for sexist and demeaning jokes published in a 1990 pamphlet, Portable Bloomberg: The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg, saying, “Mike has come to see that some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong.” And Bloomberg recently visited a black church to apologize for his embrace of stop-and-frisk policing: “I can’t change history, however today I want you to know that I realize back then I was wrong and I’m sorry.”
RS Coverage: Enter Mike Bloomberg, Exit Black Voters

13) Steve Bullock

Website: SteveBullock.com
The Montana governor with a Deadwood-worthy name is a 2020 dark horse. He entered the race in May and made a folksy introduction from the Detroit debates. Even in a crowded field, Bullock’s experience stands out. He won statewide office in a state Trump carried by 20 points — and then got a GOP-majority legislature to agree to expand Medicaid. He raised $2.3 million in the third quarter. 
Signature Policy: The 53-year-old has focused on ending the influence of unlimited political contributions and dark money. “If we can kick the Koch brothers out of Montana,” he said in Detroit, “we can do it everywhere.” (Read more about Bullock’s platform.)
Signature Apology: A former Bullock aide, fired for sexual harassment, went on to harass again in the office of the mayor of New York City. “I should have done more to ensure future employers would learn of his behavior,” Bullock wrote in February. “These realizations come too late for the two women in New York City. For that, I’m deeply sorry.”
RS Coverage: The Democrats’ Battle for Montana

14) Michael Bennet

Website: MichaelBennet.com
The 54-year-old senator is campaigning for a return to integrity in government and a revival of American economic mobility. Bennet positions himself as “pragmatic idealist” and has been calling for Democrats to temper ideas like packing the Supreme Court. He has been lauded by “Morning” Joe Scarborough for combining “an Ivy League pedigree” with “a common touch,” and for his “commitment to key centrist fiscal policies.” Bennett raised a respectable $2.1 million in the third quarter.
Signature Policy: Medicare X. With Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Bennet is proposing legislation to create, and slowly roll out, a public option for the Obamacare state marketplaces, with the same doctor and hospital networks as Medicare, and similar reimbursement rates. Bennet has called Medicare for All, which would disrupt existing health care plans for millions, “a bad opening offer.” (Read more about Bennet’s platform.)
RS Coverage: The 21st Democratic Presidential Candidate Has Entered the 2020 Race — Make It Stop

15) Deval Patrick

Website: Devalpatrick2020.com
Deval Patrick, a former two-term governor and Bain Capital partner, declared his candidacy in mid-November. The 63 year old is a friend of former President Obama and seems to be casting himself as the keeper of the Yes-We-Can flame. Patrick has an appealing life story, rising from a tenement on Chicago’s South Side to become Massachusetts’ chief executive, and he may find fans in neighboring New Hampshire. But his late-entry remains puzzling. In polls, nearly three quarters of Democratic voters said they liked their choices, and Patrick already missed the deadlines to appear on the ballot in Arkansas and Alabama, squandering a shot at those delegates.
Signature Policy: Patrick promises to root out “hyper-partisan gerrymandering where the party picks the voter rather than the other way around.”
RS Coverage: Deval Patrick’s Bain Capital Bio Has Vanished. Here’s What it Said

16) Marianne Williamson

Website: Marianne2020.com
Williamson is campaigning to give the United States a “moral and spiritual awakening,” and two at-times-soaring debate performances have piqued national curiosity about the self-help guru. But Williamson, the love warrior, is also dogged by a record of battling science, most recently calling on group prayer to block hurricane Dorian’s destruction. She raised about $3 million in the third quarter.
Signature Policy: Called for as much as $500 billion in reparations for black people. Scholars have estimated a fair value for reparations at between $6 and $14 trillion. (Read more about Williamson’s platform.)
Signature Apology: In her Prayer of Apology to African Americans, the bestselling author apologizes for slavery, lynchings, white supremacist laws, the denial of voting rights, the denial of civil rights, unequal treatment of black Americans in the criminal-justice system, police brutality, economic injustice and more, asking God for forgiveness. “May the screams that were not allowed, be allowed now/May the cries that were never heard be heard now/May the tears that were never heard be heard now/And may the healing begin/In this sacred container, may the healing begin/May the light of love now heal us all/Amen.”
RS Coverage: That Marianne Mind$et: Obeying the Law of Divine Compensation

17) John Delaney

Website: JohnKDelaney.com
The former Maryland Congressman, 56, has been running for president since July 2017, preaching a relentlessly bipartisan message of national unity. An entrepreneur in high finance, Delaney launched two companies that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. Delaney has blown more than $24 million on this bid and seems determined to gut it out through New Hampshire if not beyond.
Signature Policy: Delaney is promoting a national youth service program to bring the country together. (Read more about Delaney’s platform.)
RS Coverage: John Delaney Says He’s “Skating to Where the Puck Is Going”

18) Joe Sestak

Website: JoeSestak.com
The former three-star Navy admiral and two-term congressman threw his hat into the 2020 ring in mid-June, and has been spotted stumping before sparse crowds in Iowa. Sestak is a name political junkies will remember from his failed bids for a senate seat from Pennsylvania. In 2010, he unseated the party-switching Democratic incumbent Arlen Specter in the primary, before losing to Republican Pat Toomey in the general. (Sestak lost an expensive Democratic primary race in 2016.)
Signature Policy: Sestak is campaigning on his military and foreign-policy credentials insisting he “has the depth of global experience to restore America’s leadership in the world.”

2020 Campaign Graveyard

Here lie the presidential ambitions of fallen Democratic contenders:

Wayne Messam
Dropped Out:  11/20/19, after 238 days
Parting Words: “Although the campaign goal of becoming President was not realized at this moment… we have impacted this 2020 campaign… by challenging the status quo and not waiting our turn to make difference and to spark change.”
Last Wish: That we all “take a stand to ensure the American Dream that attracted my parents and so many others to this great nation can still be achieved.”

Beto O’Rourke
Dropped Out: 11/01/19, after 232 days
Parting Words: “We laid bare the cost and consequence of Donald Trump: the rise in hate crimes, the terror attack in El Paso, the perversion of the Constitution, the diminished standing of the United States around the world.”
Last Wish: “Let us continue to fearlessly champion the issues and causes that brought us together. Whether it is ending the epidemic of gun violence or dismantling structural racism or successfully confronting climate change before it is too late.”

Tim Ryan
Dropped Out: 10/24/19, after 200 days
Parting Words: “I got into this race in April to really give voice to the forgotten people of our country. I look forward to continuing that fight.”
Last Wish: Ryan is seeking House reelection in Ohio so that the voice of “forgotten communities that have been left behind by globalization and automation” will not be “stifled.”

Bill de Blasio
Dropped Out: 9/20/19, after 128 days
Parting Words: “I feel like I’ve contributed all I can to this primary election. It’s clearly not my time.”
Last Wish: “Democrats must return to our roots as a party focused on bold solutions that speak to the concerns of working people.”

Kirsten Gillibrand
Dropped Out: 8/28/19, after 225 days
Parting Words: “We led the fights we can’t afford to lose for women and families — and moved the entire field along with us.”
Last Wish: “We have to defeat President Trump, flip the Senate and elect women up and down the ballot.”

Seth Moulton
Dropped Out: 8/23/19, after 124 days
Parting Words: “I will be campaigning my ass off for whoever wins our nomination in 2020.”
Last Wish: That Americans embrace hope: “Hope is what gets us, as individuals, through the darkest of times. And it is what will lead our country through the darkest of times as well.”

Jay Inslee
Dropped Out: 8/21/19, after 174 days
Parting Words: “It’s become clear that I’m not going to be carrying the ball. I’m not going to be the president, so I’m withdrawing tonight from the race.”
Last Wish: That the climate crisis “must be the top priority for our next president.” And a third term as governor in the other Washington: “I want to continue to stand with you in opposing Donald Trump and rejecting his hurtful and divisive agenda, while strengthening and enhancing Washington state’s role as a progressive beacon for the nation.”

John Hickenlooper
Dropped Out: 8/15/19, after 164 days
Parting Words: “I ran for president because this country is being ripped apart, by politics and partisan games, while our biggest problems go unsolved.”
Last Wish: A different national office. “I’ve heard from so many Coloradans who want me to run for the United States Senate. I intend to give that some serious thought.” (Hickenlooper announced his Senate bid less than a week later.)

Mike Gravel
Dropped Out: 8/6/19, after 126 days
Parting Words: “I am proud and honored to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders for the presidency of the United States.”
Last Wish: That Americans vote for democratic socialism over “Republican socialism, which benefits the one percent and leads us to a constant state of war.”

Eric Swalwell
Dropped Out: 7/8/19, after 91 days
Parting Words: “Weaknesses will be flushed out and a leader will emerge.”
Last Wish: That the eventual nominee supports an assault-weapons ban and buyback.

Richard Ojeda
Dropped Out: 1/25/19, after 79 days
Parting Words: “When I was a kid in grade school, my teachers always said that anyone could grow up and become president. Unfortunately, what I’m starting to realize is that unless you have wealth, influence, and power, it’s not gonna happen.”
Last Wish: “Whoever does win the presidency needs to be somebody who is willing to check Big Pharma.”