Amid a pit stop in Chicago for campaign cash and a handful of media interviews, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock learned Wednesday that he won’t be among the 20 Democratic presidential candidates appearing on stage for the party’s first debates in two weeks.
Bullock, who didn’t officially enter the race until last month when his state’s legislative session ended, failed to garner support from 1 percent of voters in three polls or receive campaign contributions from at least 65,000 donors. That leaves Bullock out for the two 10-candidate debates on back-to-back nights in Miami later this month.
In a visit to Chicago’s venerable Billy Goat Tavern on Wednesday afternoon, Bullock didn’t seem too concerned about the development, spending about as much time pondering which beer to order as he did discussing the debate snub. And for the record, he went with a Billy Goat IPA.
“That is what it is, and there is no way I could have gotten into the race earlier. I had a job to do,” Bullock said. “We’re still some 235 days away from the first man or woman casting any kind of a decision. There is still a long way to go.”
In a field of 23 candidates, Bullock is quick to emphasize his unique attribute: He’s the only one to win a state President Donald Trump carried in 2016, securing re-election by four points on the same night Trump dominated Montana by 20.
“Twenty-five to 30 percent of my voters voted for Donald Trump. If we can’t win those voters back and we can’t get them on our side, we’re not going to win this election,” Bullock said. “There are a whole lot of folks who, if they’re voting their economic interests, their health care interests, their education interests, they ought to be voting Democrat, but they didn’t. We’ve got to ask why, and win those people back.”
On a day when Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered a speech making the case for Democratic socialism, Bullock argued his across-the-aisle sensibilities that have allowed him to govern effectively with a Republican-controlled state legislature make him a strong presidential contender in Midwestern states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio that were key to Trump’s 2016 win.
Bullock, a 53-year-old attorney, said he didn’t enter the race until Montana’s once-every-two-years legislative session concluded because he was busy working with Republicans to preserve Medicaid expansion to 95,000 low-income adults for another six years and freezing college tuition. Bullock has made a name for himself back home by protecting public land and more broadly for his fight against so-called dark money in politics, shepherding state legislation that requires transparency from nonprofits that engage in Montana campaigns and suing to block the Trump administration’s attempt to end a 40-year requirement that unions, business groups and other nonprofits disclose the identity of big-dollar donors.
Viewed nationally as a moderate, Bullock bristles at the description, suggesting that he prefers the “label of gettin’ stuff done that matters in people’s lives.” And he said a candidate need not reside in the party’s far left wing to be viewed as transformative.
“If you look at my fight against outside spending and dark money, I’ve done more progressive things than anyone else in the field. I’m more conservative than a whole lot of the field, because I’ve actually had to balance a budget,” Bullock said as he took a swig of beer. “You can be sufficiently aspirational, recognize we need to make some big changes in this country, but you also have to actually get them done.”
Bullock won’t get the chance to convey that message before a national audience this month. Wednesday marked the deadline for Democratic presidential candidates to meet the Miami debate requirements. Bullock had polled at 1 percent in two polls, but failed to reach that number in a third. A Monmouth University Nevada poll released Wednesday afternoon sealed Bullock’s fate, as he didn’t register high enough in that survey before the deadline.
The governor’s campaign sought to capitalize on the news of him missing the first debate as a way to increase his national name ID. For his part, Bullock noted his operation is still ramping up.
A key factor to whether the little-known governor can establish a message that cuts through the crowded field of contenders rests on whether Bullock can attract the tens of thousands of donors needed to continue to qualify for debates down the road, a threshold that reaches 130,000 by September. He went to work on that front Tuesday night at a private fundraiser in the tony North Shore suburb of Highland Park.
Wealthy Democratic activist Wendy Abrams and her husband Jim Abrams, chief operating officer of Medline Industries, hosted a fundraiser for Bullock at their home. Also serving as hosts for the fundraiser was prominent Chicago attorney Sidney “Skip” Herman and his wife Meg. Herman owns a home in Montana and for years has hosted former Mayor Rahm Emanuel on an annual fly fishing trip there.
More than 50 people attended the fundraiser, according to the campaign, which did not disclose how much money Bullock raised.
Twitter @BillRuthhart