Richard Ojeda – my 250/1 longshot to take on the draft-dodging incumbent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9lWuZ7f-oA&feature=youtu.be
Yesterday one of the midterm contenders who received a lot of publicity during the campaign, Richard Ojeda, announced that he was running for the presidency and published his first campaign video, see above.
He was fighting last Tuesday in a congressional district in West Virginia that had been won by Trump by a margin of 49% at WH2016. He ended up just 14% behind the Republican victor an improvement of 35 points.
Given the likely nature of the White House Race next time the Democrats will be looking for a nominee who can beat Trump and maybe Ojeda might fit the requirement.
-
A former serving Army officer who spent a lot of time in Afghanistan demonstrated during his congressional campaign that he had an ability to attract publicity as well as having a message that resonated with working class voters in a part of the US which has swung sharply to the Republicans.
A strong point is that unlike other suggested contenders he has announced that he is definitely running and my guess is that he might well attract the financial support from those who believe that his approach might be just be what Trump, if he’s the nominee, would find very difficult to deal with in 2020. The incumbent , it will be recalled, dodged the draft at the height of the Vietnam war some that Ojeda would exploit.
Over the next 6 or 7 months we will see the Likely runners for the Democratic nomination declare their positions and it is expected that a dozen or more might put themselves forward. Ojeda, through his early declaration and ability to attract publicity might just have an edge.