Talk of Hillary Clinton making another presidential run in 2024 has picked up among the former secretary of state’s allies as President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris continue to find new lows in the polls.
A Tuesday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal painted 2024 as an ideal picture for another crack at the White House from Clinton, arguing that Biden and Harris’ unpopularity had created a “leadership vacuum” in the Democratic Party. Authors Douglas Schoen, a pollster who worked for President Bill Clinton, and Andrew Stein, a former New York City Council president, point to Democrats’ impending disaster in the 2022 midterms as an advantage for Clinton, allowing her to present herself as a “change candidate.” (RELATED: Ethics Experts Alarmed By 93% Decrease In Clinton Foundation Donations Since $250 Million Peak In 2009 )
“Several circumstances — President Biden’s low approval rating, doubts over his capacity to run for re-election at 82, Vice President Kamala Harris’s unpopularity, and the absence of another strong Democrat to lead the ticket in 2024 — have created a leadership vacuum in the party, which Mrs. Clinton viably could fill,” they wrote. “She is already in an advantageous position to become the 2024 Democratic nominee.”
“If Democrats lose control of Congress in 2022, Mrs. Clinton can use the party’s loss as a basis to run for president again, enabling her to claim the title of ‘change candidate,'” they added.
Hillary Clinton reads what would have been her 2016 Victory Speech. (Screenshot / TODAY)
Clinton would also have the age advantage against both Biden and former President Donald Trump in a potential 2024 race, though only by a hair. Clinton will be 77 by the time of the race, while Biden will be 82 and Trump will be 78.
Fox News has held a number of segments discussing a potential Clinton run, which would be her third since her loss to former President Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary.
“Speculation over a possible third White House bid by Hillary Clinton. I can’t even believe we’re saying this! It is gaining steam.”
Fox anchor Harris Faulkner says, without a shred of irony, as she sets up a discussion purely manufactured by other Fox segments and dumb columns. pic.twitter.com/01hOlX4toi
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 13, 2022
Clinton herself, however, has yet to indicate any interest in running for president again, and Schoen and Stein do not claim to be familiar with her thoughts on the prospect.
Many conservative commentators have found the idea that Clinton would run again amusing at best. Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Public Affairs Monica Crowley said the rumors are just another example of Clinton’s “insatiable ambition.”
Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson also took shots at the prospect of Clinton making her way back into politics, going on a minutes-long, sarcastic riff touting Clinton’s chances of winning.
The rumblings come less than a month after Clinton publicly criticized the left wing of her party in December, blaming so-called “progressives” for stonewalling progress on the party’s legislation in Congress.
“I think that it is a time for some careful thinking about what wins elections, and not just in deep-blue districts where a Democrat and a liberal Democrat, or so-called progressive Democrat, is going to win,” Clinton said Dec. 30. “I understand why people want to argue for their priorities. That’s what they believe they were elected to do.”