President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign team is actively targeting potential Democratic foes in a bid to cut their legs out from underneath them before they ever get a sniff of a presidential run, Politico reported.
Even better — helping defeat Democrats in midterms next year.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, are at the top of that list. Short of defeating, weakening 2020 threats in 2018 just help grease the skids for a Trump re-election.
"There's wisdom in putting the 2018 Democratic candidates on notice — and some Republicans who are making noises as well — that there is going to be a well-funded, diverse set of groups that will be taking them on," Matt Schlapp, the American Conservative Union chairman, told Politico.
Other Democrats in the crosshairs of a fully-funded and staffed machine — thanks in part to hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer — that has already begun campaigns against them:
- Sen. Cory Booker.
- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
- Sen. Chris Murphy.
- And, of course, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The early legwork is modeled after the takedown of Hillary Clinton in the past election.
"It hasn't been difficult so far, as Democrats angling for 2020 are tripping over themselves to see who can spout the most extreme far-left positions and who can be the biggest obstructionist," RNC research director Mike Reed told Politico.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.