Who Wants to Run For President?

The Colorado Democratic Primary Ballot

As I posted on social media last night, yesterday’s mail included my 2024 Democratic Presidential Primary Ballot. Political junkie that I am, I knew that Joe Biden, Dean Phillips (more below), and Marianne Williamson (who suspended her campaign last week) were on the ballot. I didn’t know that another five people had qualified for the primary ballot. So naturally, I needed to do some research to find out more about these mystery candidates.

The Secretary of State has a presidential primary guide explaining how one gets on the ballot. First, you must meet the constitutional criteria: at least 35 years of age, a native of the US, and have lived in the country for the past 14 years. Next, you send the required form to the political party requesting to be on the ballot. Then you have to pay a $500 fee. If you don’t want to go the party route, you have to file petitions signed by at least 5,000 registered Colorado voters.¹ I’m assuming that all of the candidates on my ballot opted for the non-petition route.

Obviously, Joe Biden is the incumbent president. Even though his overall approval numbers are not what he wished they were, he has proved the strongest candidate in the primaries that have occurred so far. While Dean Phillips and Nikki Haley like to quote the poll saying that 75% of voters don’t want a 2020 rematch, that is a measure of general preference and not one of voting likelihood.

Dean Phillips was the guest on The Bulwark daily podcast, now hosted by Tim Miller. It’s worth 45 minutes of your time. Tim is no liberal champion and tries to pin Phillips down on why he’s running. The answer seems to be that Biden is too old, that democracy requires competitive primaries, and that he’ll be able to beat Trump (without demonizing him) once people really get to know Dean between now and June. He does have some broad policy ideas, but not a lot of clarity on how he’d work with divided government (other than “business background”, “common sense”, and “problem solving).

Since Williamson has dropped out, I won’t say anymore about her except that her campaign strategy in 2020 wasn’t clear either. I do want to share the quick research I did on the other five men on my ballot.

Jason Michael Palmer is from Baltimore. According to his bio, he worked for Microsoft, Kaplan, and the Gates Foundation before his current role at a major investment firm. He says he is committed to “Conscious Capitalism”, “People First”, and “Modernizing the Government”. He hopes to restore a proper balance between corporations and workers, improve affordable housing, rework the immigration system, have a bipartisan plan for a balanced budget in five years², and add a cabinet office of Innovation and Technology (merging Education and Labor into a Department of Talent). As a Quaker, he supports international diplomacy and human rights agreements.

Gabriel Cornejo says he’s running for president “because our ship is sinking”. His bio makes a passing reference to Jesus (but not by name) and a story about solidarity with a grade school friend with cancer. His policy initiatives include term limits, stock bans, universal health care, a guaranteed income of $1000 per month for every citizen, family medical leave (with pay), codifying Roe v. Wade, and legalization of drugs.

Frankie Lozado is an entrepreneur who has worked with asylum seekers on the Southern border. He wants education to be focused on financial skills and investing, is for better health care, support of LGBTQ+ rights, immigration reform (including path to citizenship), and major criminal justice reform. His webpage doesn’t have a lot of detail on how these ideas would be implemented.

Stephen Lyons is a plumber from Maryland. His bio is the most detailed I’ve ever seen (did you know he failed second grade at St. Jude Catholic School on Veirs Mill Road in Rockville, Maryland?). The bio ends with an all-caps admonition to kiss your loved ones. In terms of policy, he wants to put US Citizens first instead of the undocumented immigrants crossing our border (he wants to close the border). He’s pro-children and opposed to bullying. He wants to bring manufacturing back from China. He arguing for a 250,000 person strong task force that can deal with disasters or, God forbid, warfare. He wants us to be energy independent again³ and believes in climate change. He also says he wants to lower grocery prices. (All this makes me wonder if he filed the primary paperwork with the wrong party!)

Armando “Mando” Perez-Serrato doesn’t have a bio on his campaign website but other sources on Google identify him as a former candidate during Gavin Newsom’s recall election. He owns a company making the Pro-Action Rod to work with AR-15s. The recall interview has him arguing for the opposite of whatever Newsom supported. In the presidential race, he is in favor of ending Israel’s genocide, of universal health care, major increases in social security payments, increases in student aid, reducing the federal income tax, lowering interest rates, decreasing grocery and gasoline prices. Not surprisingly, he makes a lot of the Mandolorian nickname, including this photo.

In summary, my choices come down to Biden (who is just now moving into campaign mode), Phillips (who doesn’t really have a reason to run), two very liberal candidates, one who doesn’t tell us what he’s for, and two candidates who would have been Republicans in the before times.

As I’ve regularly written, none of what they provide gives me a sense of how they would govern should they somehow get elected. So while we may not love the idea of 2020 redux, it is the one where we have a clear sense of how the candidates will pursue their policy goals and what it would mean for our democracy.

1. Official figures list a total of 3.7 million registered voters in Colorado.

2. This always brings me back to Charles Grodin’s character as the accountant friend in the movie Dave.

3. Campaign promise already fulfilled!