With the entry of Joe Biden in the 2020 US presidential race, there are now 20 declared Democratic candidates.
Each presidential hopeful has jumped in with a stirring, high-production-value message that’s been quickly pumped through social media—the “Why I’m running” video. Set to inspirational music, these are meant to provide a powerful emotional hook to get voters invested in the candidate, and set the tone for the campaign to come.
It hasn’t always been like this. In years past, presidential candidates simply declared they were running in public rallies and speeches, like John F. Kennedy’s bare bones announcement in the Senate Caucus room in 1960, or Arkansas governor Bill Clinton’s speech announcing his candidacy that lasted more than 36 minutes. Or, they put out long, detailed infomercials, like Ronald Reagan’s video announcement from 1980 that runs about 25 minutes.
In the era of social media, though, candidates have whittled down the “I’m running!” announcement to an easily-shareable few minutes. In the interest of saving even more time given the crowded field, Quartz has boiled these down to 10 words or less.
Here are the nine top candidates, listed in order of popularity on the latest Morning Consult poll.
Joe Biden
Nazis are bad. Remember D-day? I do.
Bernie Sanders
AS I SAID EARLIER…
Pete Buttigieg
Olds: Hand it over already.
Kamala Harris
Me. You. Patriotic abstract nouns. Let’s do it.
Elizabeth Warren
This shit is broken. Mama has a plan.
Beto O’Rourke
Folks, listen up. My wife does.
Cory Booker
Newark took a chance on me. Why not you?
Amy Klobuchar
Minnesota nice, no matter what you’ve heard.
Andrew Yang
The robots are coming. At least get some cash.