A failed congressional candidate in West Virginia announced Monday that he will run for the White House in 2020 — making him among the first Democrats to take on President Trump’s reelection bid.
Richard Ojeda, a decorated Iraq War Army veteran who lost a Democratic race to represent West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District, posted a video to his campaign’s Facebook page claiming he’s ready for the White House.
“We got a long ways to go and it’s going to be a long fight, but we’re going to do this together because I’m Richard Ojeda and I’m running for President of the United States of America,” Ojeda, 48, said in the video.
The square-jawed, heavily tattooed ex-soldier said his first campaign promise will be to end political corruption by capping the amount of money Presidents and members of Congress can accumulate while in office.
“We have elected officials who say they are going to run for office to serve the people, but in reality they legislate themselves into wealth,” Ojeda said.
He also took a swipe at Trump’s family foundation, which has drawn the scrutiny of the New York attorney general’s office amid reports that the charity organization run by his children makes self-serving deals that benefit the Trumps’ business interests.
“What I believe in is that everyone who runs for federal office has to prove that they mean what they say when they talk about sacrifice. That means you are given a net worth of $1 million and anything above that you donate to charity, and I don’t mean your children — to actual charity,” Ojeda said.
Ojeda, currently serving in the state Senate, voted for Trump in 2016. But the Dem but has since soured on the President, accusing him of not living up to his campaign promises.
In his failed House bid, Ojeda tried to curry favor with West Virginia’s traditionally conservative constituents by arguing that both Republicans and Democrats have lost touch with the people they are supposed to represent.
Ojeda lost that race by 12% to Republican Carol Miller, but some strategists argued the relatively tight contest was a sign of a burgeoning wave of rural Democratic enthusiasm.
In the 2016 general election, Trump won the same district by 49 points against rival Hillary Clinton.
The former Army paratrooper made national headlines during the midterms for supporting a teachers strike and painting himself as a no-frills alternative to the Democratic establishment.
Yet he’s not the first — or even best-known — candidate to go up against Trump. Maryland Rep. John Delaney became the first Democrat to officially announce a 2020 bid, filing paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission on July 28, 2017.
A number of high-profile Dems, including former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris, have been rumored to be considering runs for the White House.
And many in Ojeda’s own party said his early and vocal support for President Trump will come back to haunt him.
“Let’s just say the future of the Democratic Party is not with Trump voters who lose their races by double digits,” veteran Democratic strategist Zac Petkanas told the Daily News.
