Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D.) reflected last week on the Democratic Party's failures in 2016 and said he's considering a 2020 presidential run.
Patrick, a friend of former President Barack Obama, has received encouragement to run from former Obama officials Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, and he told Kansas City radio host Steve Kraske that it is a possibility.
"It’s on my radar screen," he said on KCUR Kansas City.
"I am trying to think through 2020, and that’s a decision I’m trying to think through from a personal and family point of view and also whether what I believe is going to be on offer by somebody," Patrick added. "And if it’s on offer by somebody, then maybe what I can do is help that person. But we’ll see."
Reflecting on the last election, Patrick said the Democratic Party and its presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are to blame for Republican victories in 2016.
"In many respects, the outcome of the 2016 election was less about Donald Trump winning than about Democrats and our nominee letting him do so," he said. "Not engaging in intimate and personal ways with folks who would vote our way, not making our case, making it more about what’s wrong with them than what’s right with us."
Arguing that Democrats are out of touch, Patrick said they made a critical mistake by believing the media narrative that Clinton "had it in the bag."
"Candidate Trump spoke one truth ... that established or conventional politics wasn’t serving enough people well," he said.
Patrick criticized Trump’s tone but still said he hopes the president performs well in office.
"He wasn’t my candidate, but he is my president. And I’m old-fashioned in the sense that I think nobody should cheer for failure," he said. "We need our presidents to succeed."
He also acknowledged that Bain Capital, which he joined in 2015, was unfairly made into a cartoon during his gubernatorial predecessor Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012.
"I know what a cartoon was made of Bain Capital in [the 2012 election]," he said, calling himself a "capitalist."
The potential candidate further spoke on the issue of gun control, saying its an an issue that needs to be handled comprehensively rather than piecemeal, and he praised the student activists pushing for gun control in the wake of the shooting in Parkland, Fla.
"The most moving thing happening right now, from my perspective, are the young people in Florida," he said. He added that the National Rifle Association, however, may still "prevail."