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.
Experts warn that social media is a root cause of mental health issues among many young adults. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who co-wrote a letter to TikTok demanding why its algorithms promote toxic content, joined Cheddar to discuss.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported that an estimated one million people have fled from Ukraine since Russia invaded. Christopher Boian, senior communications officer at UNHCR, joined Cheddar News to report on the current refugee crisis and what the world might expect if conditions continue to worsen. "We have planning figures that forecast as many as four million people could be forced to flee Ukraine," he said. "But that very much depends on how the conflict underway in that country at the moment unfolds in the days and possibly weeks ahead."
Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), corn-based ethanol has been mixed into gasoline sold at pumps in the U.S. since 2005, when a policy was enacted aimed at reducing emissions. Corn-based ethanol had been thought to be a relatively greener energy source compared to other biofuels, but now, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports it may be actually worse for the climate than straight gasoline. Tyler Lark, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Sustainability, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell and discussed the pushback against the study. "Essentially when you need to produce more corn to meet the demand for use as ethanol as fuel, farmers respond and they switch more crops like soybeans and wheat into corn," Lark said. "They also bring more land into production, so things that used to be pasture grassland, and both those activities are associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions."
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday announced new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and others in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
Christian Blauvelt, executive managing editor at IndieWire, joins Cheddar News to discuss the growing number of studios pulling content from Russia over Ukraine invasion.
Russian forces are battling for control of a crucial energy-producing city in Ukraine’s south and gaining ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea.
In the past few years, Betthany Frankel has made a major name for herself as a philanthropist after founding the
BStrong initiative, which has provided relief to people impacted by natural disasters as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, BStrong is shifting its focus to Ukraine, raising millions of dollars in donations for those impacted by Russia's invasion. Bethenny Frankel, the founder of BStrong, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Bryan Lee, Chief Investment Officer at Blue Zone Wealth Advisors, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he elaborates on the volatility we've seen in the markets this week fueled by rising oil prices and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
