Joe Biden isn't a presidential candidate yet. But with two key rivals already getting out of the way, the former vice-president has more space to court voters who could help him claim the Democratic nomination.
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown said Thursday he wouldn't run for president, following an announcement earlier this week from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that he would also sit out 2020.
Chris Coons, elected in 2010 to fill the Delaware Senate seat Biden occupied for 36 years, said Brown's decision not to run "absolutely" strengthened the former vice-president's case. "His getting in or out had zero impact on this," the 66-year-old senator said of Biden. Brown told reporters that he and Biden talk "from time to time" but had last connected before his Senate re-election win in November, "when he was in Ohio campaigning with me or for me."
Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders consistently lead in early surveys of the 2020 Democratic field, and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke could shake up the race if he decides to run. Brown's departure also provides a possible boost to Sanders, given their shared distaste for free-trade deals and vocal criticism of Wall Street.
"It's a mantle that is open to be grabbed by people who are willing to talk to these voters in an authentic way, in sharing their frustrations," said Tom Russell, a Wisconsin-based Democratic strategist who aided the party's successful effort to topple GOP Gov. Scott Walker in 2018.
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