The Democratic presidential sweepstakes might seem like a tale of Joe Biden and the Seven Senators, but there are plenty of governors and mayors looking for a chance to steal the spotlight from the former vice president and other headliners.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is headed to the early caucus state of Nevada on Saturday and will soon travel to the first primary state of New Hampshire as he mulls a White House bid. Terry McAuliffe, the former Virginia governor and longtime Democratic power player, is showing up on cable news and writing newspaper op-eds. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock are busy with day jobs but recently finished an ambitious round of midterm campaigning. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper left office this month, and he spent part of the fall on the road.
Billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he'd fund his own race if he runs. Even Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is making noise.
FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2018, file photo, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock walks down the main concourse during a visit to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa. Former Vice President Joe Biden and several nationally known senators are commanding most of the attention in Democrats’ early presidential angling, but there are several governors and mayors, including Bullock, eyeing 2020 campaigns, as well. (AP PhotoCharlie Neibergall, File)
Each person is making moves that could result in a presidential campaign. But in the early days of a Democratic primary, the question is whether someone without a Washington resume can win a contest that's so far dominated by Biden, former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke and several nationally known senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Cory Booker of New Jersey. Other senators who might join the race include Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. And that number of senators may grow.
"Being an outsider governor or an outsider mayor is a good place to run from to cast yourself as somebody with executive experience and leadership at a time when people don't trust a dysfunctional Congress," said Dave Hamrick, who managed then-Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland's unsuccessful bid in 2016.
"The challenge," Hamrick said, "is figuring out whether your story is the right one for this moment and selling it when so many other people are out there."
FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2018, file photo Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti poses for a photo in front of a sprawling downtown Los Angeles landscape. Former Vice President Joe Biden and several nationally known senators are commanding most of the attention in Democrats’ early presidential angling, but there are several governors and mayors, including Garcetti, eyeing 2020 campaigns, as well.(AP PhotoRichard Vogel, File)
For now, Inslee is the most publicly active of the governors. In Nevada, he'll address activists at the Battle Born Progress convention.
Jamal Raad, an Inslee aide, said the governor will highlight Washington state's Medicaid expansion and family-leave policy while repeating his call for action on climate change. Raad notes Nevada Democrats' new combined control of the legislative and executive branches, with the governor's office being one of seven that Democrats flipped in November under Inslee's chairmanship of the Democratic Governors Association.
"He wants to lay out for them what kind of progressive agenda they can accomplish," Raad said.
Campaign finance laws give non-federal officials more leeway to raise money without having an official presidential campaign or exploratory committee, so there's less pressure on them to announce campaigns than for senators who want to travel. If those governors and mayors announce early and then fail to show fundraising prowess, their campaigns could be short-lived. But if they wait too long, they could lose out on media attention, donors and key staffers.
The sweet spot will be qualifying for the first party-sponsored debate in June. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez hasn't yet announced debate qualification rules.
Inslee is traveling now using his federal political action committee.
Garcetti's PAC raised $2.6 million for Democrats last year. He brought in $100,000 each for several state parties, including early voting states, and he recently hired the former executive director of the Democratic Party in South Carolina, which holds the South's first primary.
Bullock, a former DGA chairman like Inslee, traveled extensively in 2018 but now is dedicated to his state's legislative session. His national advisers include Jen Palmieri, a former communications director to the Obama White House and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.
In Colorado, Hickenlooper opened a federal political action committee last fall and has made some top staff hires.
McAuliffe, who is also a former DNC chairman, is in contact with his old network of donors and aides; he has the personal wealth to pay for some of his own early travel.
Besides competing for money and staff, Hamrick said, candidates will have to choose their "lanes" — political identities that make them stand out.
The 2016 race amounted to Clinton and the non-Clinton lane, filled by Bernie Sanders. In 2020, it will be more complicated: policy distinctions; generational divides among older and younger candidates; demographic distinctions among white men, women and candidates of color; and a divide between Washington politicians and those elected to non-federal posts.
"There are overlaps, of course," Hamrick said.
So Bullock can be the 52-year-old white governor who mixes his Ivy League education with his Montana roots. McAuliffe, the 61-year-old former Virginia governor, can be the establishment liberal who restored felon voting rights and pushed Medicaid expansion but who warns against a "federal jobs guarantee" and "free college tuition."
Inslee told The Associated Press in an interview last fall that he doesn't buy into "lanes," but the 67-year-old also has made clear his intention to be the "climate change candidate" if he runs. He has a trip to New Hampshire later this month to speak on that topic at Dartmouth College.
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HAVANA (AP) — Cuban soldiers wearing white gloves marched out of a plane on Thursday carrying urns with the remains of the 32 Cuban officers killed during a stunning U.S. attack on Venezuela as trumpets and drums played solemnly at Havana's airport.
Nearby, thousands of Cubans lined one of Havana’s most iconic streets to await the bodies of colonels, lieutenants, majors and captains as the island remained under threat by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The soldiers' shoes clacked as they marched stiff-legged into the headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, next to Revolution Square, with the urns and placed them on a long table next to the pictures of those killed so people could pay their respects.
Thursday’s mass funeral was only one of a handful that the Cuban government has organized in almost half a century.
Hours earlier, state television showed images of more than a dozen wounded people described as “combatants” accompanied by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez arriving Wednesday night from Venezuela. Some were in wheelchairs.
Those injured and the remains of those killed arrived as tensions grow between Cuba and the U.S., with Trump recently demanding that the Caribbean country make a deal with him before it is “too late.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
Trump also has said that Cuba will no longer live off Venezuela's money and oil. Experts warn that the abrupt end of oil shipments could be catastrophic for Cuba, which is already struggling with serious blackouts and a crumbling power grid.
Officials unfurled a massive flag at Havana's airport as President Miguel Díaz-Canel, clad in military garb as commander of Cuba's Armed Forces, stood silent next to former President Raúl Castro, with what appeared to be the relatives of those killed looking on nearby.
Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casa said Venezuela was not a distant land for those killed, but a “natural extension of their homeland.”
“The enemy speaks to an audience of high-precision operations, of troops, of elites, of supremacy,” Álvarez said in apparent reference to the U.S. “We, on the other hand, speak of faces, of families who have lost a father, a son, a husband, a brother.”
Álvarez called those slain “heroes,” saying that they were an example of honor and “a lesson for those who waver.”
“We reaffirm that if this painful chapter of history has demonstrated anything, it is that imperialism may possess more sophisticated weapons; it may have immense material wealth; it may buy the minds of the wavering; but there is one thing it will never be able to buy: the dignity of the Cuban people,” he said.
Thousands of Cubans lined a street where motorcycles and military vehicles thundered by with the remains of those killed.
“They are people willing to defend their principles and values, and we must pay tribute to them,” said Carmen Gómez, a 58-year-old industrial designer, adding that she hopes no one invades given the ongoing threats.
When asked why she showed up despite the difficulties Cubans face, Gómez replied, “It’s because of the sense of patriotism that Cubans have, and that will always unite us.”
Cuba recently released the names and ranks of 32 military personnel — ranging in age from 26 to 60 — who were part of the security detail of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during the raid on his residence on January 3. They included members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, the island’s two security agencies.
Cuban and Venezuelan authorities have said that the uniformed personnel were part of protection agreements between the two countries.
A demonstration was planned for Friday across from the U.S. Embassy in an open-air forum known as the Anti-Imperialist Tribune. Officials have said they expect the demonstration to be massive.
“People are upset and hurt. There’s a lot of talk on social media; but many do believe that the dead are martyrs” of a historic struggle against the United States, analyst and former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray told The Associated Press.
In October 1976, then-President Fidel Castro led a massive demonstration to bid farewell to the 73 people killed in the bombing of a Cubana de Aviación civilian flight financed by anti-revolutionary leaders in the U.S. Most of the victims were Cuban athletes.
In December 1989, officials organized “Operation Tribute” to honor the more than 2,000 Cuban combatants who died in Angola during Cuba’s participation in the war that defeated the South African army and ended the apartheid system. In October 1997, memorial services were held following the arrival of the remains of guerrilla commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara and six of his comrades, who died in 1967.
The latest mass burial is critical to honor those slain, said José Luis Piñeiro, a 60-year-old doctor who lived four years in Venezuela.
“I don’t think Trump is crazy enough to come and enter a country like this, ours, and if he does, he’s going to have to take an aspirin or some painkiller to avoid the headache he’s going to get,” Piñeiro said. “These were 32 heroes who fought him. Can you imagine an entire nation? He’s going to lose.”
A day before the remains of those killed arrived in Cuba, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced $3 million in aid to help the island recover from the catastrophic Hurricane Melissa, which struck in late October.
The first flight took off from Florida on Wednesday, and a second flight was scheduled for Friday. A commercial vessel also will deliver food and other supplies.
“We have taken extraordinary measures to ensure that this assistance reaches the Cuban people directly, without interference or diversion by the illegitimate regime,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. government was working with Cuba's Catholic Church.
The announcement riled Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez.
“The U.S. government is exploiting what appears to be a humanitarian gesture for opportunistic and politically manipulative purposes,” he said in a statement. “As a matter of principle, Cuba does not oppose assistance from governments or organizations, provided it benefits the people and the needs of those affected are not used for political gain under the guise of humanitarian aid.”
Coto contributed from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
Military members pay their last respects to Cuban officers who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces where the urns containing the remains are displayed during a ceremony in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Soldiers carry urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Adalberto Roque /Pool Photo via AP)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
People line the streets of Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, to watch the motorcade carrying urns containing the remains of Cuban officers killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Workers fly the Cuban flag at half-staff at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune near the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in memory of Cubans who died two days before in Caracas, Venezuela during the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
