Hillary Clinton rules out 2020 presidential run

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that she will not mount a campaign for the 2020 election , thus ruling out the possibility that she will face off once again against President Donald Trump , who narrowly defeated her in the 2016 vote.

“I’m not running” in 2020, Clinton told a New York media outlet, thus dispelling doubts that had surfaced in recent months about a potential presidential run.

“I’m going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” Clinton also told CNN. “I want to be sure that people understand I’m going to keep speaking out. I’m not going anywhere.”

The 71-year-old said that the country is not only polarized, but people find themselves in opposing camps in a way she has never seen in her adult life, a clear reference to the activities of the Trump administration.

The former secretary of state under ex-President Barack Obama, who also served as a US senator from New York for eight years, announced that she will play an active role in the upcoming presidential cycle, where there are already 14 Democratic candidates registered for the party primaries in various states.

This past weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont - who vied with Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016, and lost to her in what may have created a fatal split in the party that materially contributed to her election loss - announced his intention to campaign for the party’s nomination once again.

The broad competition for the Democratic presidential nomination so far includes Senators Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, along with former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, among others.

Clinton said that in recent weeks she met with some of the aspirants to provide them with her opinion and advice about the 2020 race.

Other Democratic figures who have sparked speculation regarding their possible presidential runs include former Vice President Joe Biden and the popular former state lawmaker from Texas, Beto O’Rourke.

Ultimately, the Democratic nominee is virtually certain to have to go up against Trump, who has confirmed that he will seek re-election.

If history is any guide in these unprecedented times, were Trump to face a challenge from within the Republican Party for the 2020 nomination, that might present a significant problem for the GOP, given that no Republican president has won re-election when challenged for the party’s nomination.