It was the turn of Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York, to present his candidacy for the 2020 American presidential election. Despite hostile media and unfavorable polls, the elected Democrat made his official announcement on Thursday, becoming the 23rd candidate for covet the White House.
“Americans who work deserve better than this, and I know it is possible because I have done it here in the biggest, toughest city in America,” said the man who has run New York since January 2014 , on ABC’s Good Morning America morning show.
Interviewed alongside his wife Chirlane McCray, after posting a video announcing his candidacy, he highlighted several programs established under his mandate in the American financial capital: free kindergarten for all, free health coverage for those who do not do not have any, or the mentally ill support program run by his wife.
Discouraging polls
Bill de Blasio seems however alone, for the moment, to believe in his chances. Especially since it arrives late in a democratic arena with already very varied candidates, with women, minorities, mayors, senators. The polls, so far dominated by former vice president Joe Biden and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, are currently unfavorable.
The latest mentioning it, published in early April by Quinnipiac University, indicated that, even among New Yorkers, 76% of voters did not want to see him go into battle, with only 18% in favor. But “the poll that counts is the election,” Bill de Blasio repeated Thursday. “It’s not where you start, it’s where you end.”
The mayor will also have to face the New York media fierce towards him: they denounce pell-mell his lack of tangible results in the face of poverty, his lack of charisma, his daily trips back and forth to his former Brooklyn stronghold. to do his gym, or his bickering with the Democratic governor of the state, Andrew Cuomo.
Far left positions
Elected for the first time in November 2013 to succeed billionaire Michael Bloomberg, on the promise of reducing inequalities in a city where they are often blatant, this former supporter of the Sandinistas of Nicaragua defended positions far to the left before others , close to those of Bernie Sanders, now in vogue among Democrats.
Faced with the numerous arrests of illegal immigrants by the Trump administration, he has thus increased pro-migrant measures, claiming the image of New York’s city-world. He also recently ratified a series of municipal laws that are intended to be pioneers in the face of climate change.
Married since 1994 to Chirlane McCray, a black woman with whom he had two children, he is popular in the African-American community. But Hispanics are divided and whites mostly critical of his tenure, even though he was easily re-elected for four years in 2017, for lack of big names to compete with him.
Source AFP
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