Nobody wanted this.
Nobody has wanted this for a long time.
Howard Schultz, Seattle’s most successful bean juice salesman, has been threatening to run for president for years. In 2015, the Seattle Times called rumors of a Schultz presidential bid “a seasonal tradition nearly as predictable as the pumpkin-spice latte.”
At the time, Democratic leadership greeted the possibility of a Schultz campaign with disdain. Here’s what the former head of the state party had to say to the Times: “Nobody has come to me and said… ‘I wish we had a corporate CEO running as a Democrat for president.'”
A week before Schultz put a nickel in his own back and announced his potential presidential ambitions to Scott Pelley on 60 Minutes, the Washington State Democratic Party sent out a two-word command. “Just. Don’t.” They didn’t want Schultz on the top of the Democratic ticket, and they certainly didn’t want him to run as a self-funded independent who will divide the anti-Republican vote and throw the election to Donald Trump.
