The field of Democratic presidential hopefuls grew a little smaller today as former Housing Secretary Julián Castro announced he is dropping out of the race.
Election Day may still be 311 days away, but campaign season started more than two years ago when former Rep. John Delaney announced his bid for the presidency. Shortly after, 29 Democrats joined Delaney, a field that has slowly whittled itself down to the 14 candidates.
Castro never broke into the rank of top contenders but left a mark on the race with his progressive politics and efforts to move the conversations forward on border control and immigration. Castro, who was the only Latino candidate in the race, now joins a different growing field: the dropouts. The field began as the most racially diverse in Democratic history, but the departures of Castro and Senator Kamala Harris leave the competition looking more similar to past presidential races.
Castro, the 45-year-old former San Antonio mayor, who spent a year in the race, is almost 10 years older than another mayor vying for young voters. Well, another former mayor. On January 1, Pete Buttigieg’s second term as South Bend, Indiana Mayor came to an end. In December 2018, he had announced he would not seek a third term, weeks before he started an exploratory committee for a presidential run.
Buttigieg became the youngest mayor of a city with a population of more than 100,000 when he was just 29, but on the trail, he has come under fire for a lack of experience. In last month’s Democratic debate, the sixth of its kind, Senator Amy Klobuchar, one of only four remaining women in the race, challenged former-Mayor Pete for his lack of national governance experience and contended a woman who was a mayor of a small city would not have been taken as seriously.
The candidate from Indiana has also faced criticism in the national spotlight for his handling of policing issues in South Bend. Most recently, he struggled with the fallout after a fatal police shooting of a 54-year-old black man in September. He has been confronted by voters about police violence and shrinking diversity on the that city's police force.
While politicians continue to knock Buttigieg’s experience, his fundraising numbers may tell a more promising story. His team announced it had raised $24.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, which was the second-highest total announced by Democratic contenders so far.
President Donald Trump, whose New Year’s celebrations may have been tempered by an incoming year that is expected to include an impeachment trial and another election, announced he had raised $46 million last quarter.
Buttigieg is polling in fourth place, behind Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Senator Elizbeth Warren, according to the RealClearPolitics national poll average.
Anu Gaggar, global investment strategist for Commonwealth Financial Network, joined Cheddar News to discuss how global supply chains could be disrupted even further by an armed conflict in Ukraine.
Solid-state battery maker Factorial Energy recently raised $200 million in a Series D round led by Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. Factorial says the funding will be used to accelerate commercial production and deployment of its solid-state battery technology, which the company says is safer, and offers up to 50% more driving range than current lithium-ion technology. Factorial also has joint development agreements (announced in late 2021) with Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Hyundai, three of the top 10 global automotive manufacturers, to commercialize its batteries. Factorial CEO Siyu Huang joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
A new report by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China warns that press freedom in the most populous country in the world is declining at an alarming speed. Cheddar News speaks with Steven Butler, Asia Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, about the hardships journalists face in China.
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C. 1st District) joined Cheddar to discuss her cannabis legalization bill, the States Reform Act, and the prospects for gaining bipartisan support for a bill that has garnered the endorsement of e-commerce giant Amazon. This legislation is supported by businesses large and small, Amazon obviously being the most recent and largest business to support it," Mace said. "They don't want to sell pot. But what it does do is it affects their working employment pool." She stated that 10 percent of eligible new hires for Amazon are affected by restrictive marijuana laws. The representative also explained that the bill leaves equity provisions up to the states rather than mandating them on a federal level.
After a number of tragic subway incidents, the MTA is facing increased pressure to install subway platform screens to help prevent injury or death. However, according to an earlier report from the MTA, installing these prevented measures isn't feasible. New York City Council Member Keith Powers, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Across the country, states are working to redraw their congressional lines in what is often known as gerrymandering. These news lines are expected to determine the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans within the next decade. Senior Counsel for the Brennan Center's Democracy Program, Michael Li, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
The state of California is officially planning to close its death row in the next two years. That state's governor Democrat Gavin Newsom says the plan is now to move all condemned inmates to other prisons and turn it into, as he calls it, a positive healing environment. Former U. S. Assistant Attorney and Legal Analyst, David Katz, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Anthony Saccaro, Founder and President of Providence Financial, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he elaborates on why he is excited that the market is beginning to rebound and believes February has the potential to be a good month after a turbulent January.
Cryptocurrency is expected to become a part of our daily lives — but what sort of environmental impact does it have? As the U.S. becomes the crypto mining capital of the world, climate advocates are worried about mining companies reopening old coal plants, using massive amounts of energy, wasteful hardware, and more. Congressional Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren are demanding answers from mining firms about their electricity use and waste levels. John Belizaire, CEO of Soluna Computing, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss the congressional letters, how crypto mining can become a green industry, and more.
