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.
Grant Stark, Director of Research at CapWealth, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says that his firm is closely monitoring oil prices amid the geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and elaborates on how inflation will continue to be a problem across multiple sectors.
A private prison company plans to run a new pilot program that would place hundreds of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border under house arrest. The "home curfew" pilot program is part of "impactful detention reforms," according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Jacinta Gonzalez, senior campaign organizer with Mijente, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
The U.S. is back in negotiations for a nuclear deal with Iran, years after former President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which had been meant to curtail the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear ambitions. Former State Department senior advisor to the George W. Bush and Trump administrations, Christian Whiton, joined Cheddar News Wrap to discuss. “It appears to be very similar to the original JCPOA, which does put some constraints on Iran's nuclear program, but also has sunset provisions, including some that in the original plan were expected to take effect in 2025," he said. "And so, if we just reenter that plan, really it just buys perhaps a few years of slowing down, stopping, whatever you want to say, Iran's nuclear program."
The U.S. has announced the first of what could be multiple levels of sanctions against Russia after Moscow recognized two regions of Ukraine as independent. This comes as Britain imposes sanctions on five Russian banks and two oligarchs, and Germany freezes the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Terrell Star, a foreign affairs reporter at The Atlantic Council, joins from Kyiv to discuss.
Growing tensions in Ukraine might soon be impacting consumers in the United States. With Russia on an invasion footing in the region, gas prices are predicted to go up 10 to 15 cents a gallon in the next coming weeks, according to Robert Sinclair, spokesperson for AAA. Sinclair joined Cheddar to break down what could happen even further. "We've been seeing prices go up, and there's been nothing that's happened to affect supplies," he said. "But it's something known as the fear tax where just the talk of something that might interfere with supplies leads to prices going up speculatively."
The end of 3G is upon us. On Tuesday, AT&T became the first major provider to disable its 3G services, and T-Mobile and Verizon plan to follow suit later this year. The shutdowns are expected to impact millions of vehicles that use 3G networks for updates, remote connection, and certain emergency and convenience features. Lance Ulanoff, the U.S. Editor-in-Chief of TechRadar, joined Cheddar's Closing Bell to discuss the ramifications of the changeover.
A new report shows nearly 240 former officials in Congress, the White House, and regulatory agencies have changed careers to work in the crypto industry.
President Biden unveiled new economic sanctions on Russia for what he called "the beginning of a Russian invasion". This came one day after Putin sent troops into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine. Alex Ward, national security reporter for POLITICO, explains what these sanctions might do to the global economy.
U.S. stocks ended today's session sharply lower on the heels of rising geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Melissa Brown, Managing Director of Applied Research at Qontigo, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
