The Democrats are itching to get President Donald Trump out of office. And they very much could, but right now they see former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz as a roadblock to victory.
The caffeine-fueled billionaire announced on Jan 27 that he was considering running for the 2020 presidential campaign as a centrist independent.
I love our country, and I am seriously considering running for president as a centrist independent.
— Howard Schultz (@HowardSchultz) January 28, 2019
Schultz said that he is mainly considered with the growing political divide and the rise of extremism, and he hopes to bridge the gap by providing an alternative voice for the American people.
Democrats didn’t take too kindly to Schultz’s announcement. The American Bridge 21st Century, a democratic super PAC funded by powerful investors like George Soros, released opposition research against Schultz to CNBC, according to an article released Monday.
The research claims that Starbucks gave $46 million in settlements from 2001 to 2019. The settlements covered violation claims made by employees spanning from the company distributing their tips to shift supervisors to them failing to give their workers proper overtime compensation.
Starbucks settlements by on Scribd
Some of the settlements took place while Schultz was no longer the CEO or the chairman, but American Bridge believes that Schultz’s position and business practices make him unfit for presidency.
“The country deserves to know the truth about Howard Schultz’s real record,” American Bridge Spokesman Andrew Bates said to CNBC. “The last thing the American people are hungry for is another arrogant billionaire who takes advantage of anyone he can, just like the man currently sitting in the Oval Office. Schultz can’t win the presidency – all he can do is ensure that Donald Trump stays in the White House for another disastrous 4 years.”
But Schultz doesn’t want Americans to use the term “billionaire.” In an interview on Monday with CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, he responded to the question whether or not he felt that billionaires had too much power in the United States.
“The moniker ‘billionaire’ now has become the catchphrase,” Schultz told Sorkin. “I would rephrase that and say that ‘people of means’ have been able to leverage their wealth and their interest in ways that are unfair.”
You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Howard Schultz’s facial muscles react when @andrewrsorkin asks, on my behalf, if billionaires have too much power in American life. pic.twitter.com/DgbGhA0L5j
— Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) February 4, 2019
But perhaps the biggest reason Democrats don’t want Schultz to run isn’t because he’s a “person of means”, but because he’ll keep the party from beating the other “person of means.”
According to an Emerson College poll, as reported by The Daily Wire on Tuesday, when Schultz is thrown into the race as an independent, Iowa voters will more likely give Trump the competitive edge in the election.
“The only Democrat listed who would edge out Trump head-to-head is Joe Biden (51-49 [percent]),” wrote James Barrett The Daily Wire. “All the others fell short: Bernie Sanders (50-51), Elizabeth Warren (48-52), Kamala Harris (47-53), Beto O'Rourke (47-53), Kirsten Gillibrand (46-54), Sherrod Brown (46-55), and Nancy Pelosi (45-55).”
Only time will tell if Schultz decides to get on board and take his chances at the presidential race.