Bill de Blasio 2020? New York City mayor heads to Iowa, inviting a flurry of speculation

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is headed to Iowa.

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

last updated 20 November 2017

Here is another name to add to your list of potential 2020 candidates: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

De Blasio will travel to Iowa in December in a move many interpret as testing the waters on a national next step, Politico reports. Although de Blasio denies he is running for president, he has also signaled in interviews that his sights are set on much more than just his city: "I think the Democratic Party is ill-defined right now and I think it's ill-defined because it's lost touch with what should be its core ideology," he said Sunday. "Because it's ill-defined, they're not winning elections and the two go together."

While de Blasio ran Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign in 2000, Politico reports that he is now "fully embracing the Sen. Bernie Sanders wing of the party." De Blasio's trip to Iowa is paid for by Progress Iowa, which, as the name implies, champions progressive candidates. The mayor is scheduled to be the headliner of the organization's holiday party, "the group's largest event of the year and its most important outlet for fundraising," Politico notes.

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Hizzoner waved off speculation about his trip as being "infantile," but he didn't deny he is looking at the big picture these days. "The big future of this country is when a handful more states start to move and they include Texas and Arizona and Florida too," he said. "Those will be decisive to the future of the country and the future of New York State and New York City. That change is available — I'm saying that as a Democrat and a progressive — that change is available to us and I'm obsessed with it." Read more about a possible de Blasio 2020 bid at Politico.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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