Deval Patrick Is Reportedly Considering A Presidential Run

The former Massachusetts governor had previously declared he wouldn't be running.
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Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is reportedly considering launching a last-minute presidential bid, the newest sign that establishment Democrats are unsatisfied with the current slate of contenders.

Rumors of a potential Patrick entrance surfaced Monday afternoon as people familiar with his thinking told The Associated Press and The New York Times that he’s unsure the current field of candidates is capable of uniting the party in a bid to unseat President Donald Trump.

That’s a sharp reversal from the Patrick of 11 months ago, when he’d declared “a 2020 campaign for president is not for me.” At the time, the two-term former governor said he’d been dissuaded by the “cruelty of our elections process.”

Should he follow through and enter the race, he’d be the second well-heeled late entrant to do so in under a week. Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg is expected to file paperwork by Friday for a spot on the ballot in Alabama’s Democratic presidential primary.

Friday is also the deadline to file for the New Hampshire primary, where Patrick would be banking on name recognition from his time as governor of the state next door.

If Democratic leadership harbors concerns about the quality of the field, polling indicates Democratic voters don’t feel the same.

A recent HuffPost/YouGov poll found that 71% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters thought the party had two or more candidates who could defeat Trump. Fifty-three percent thought there were three or more options.

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