Progressives would ‘lose their minds’ if Clinton ran for president again, says GOP pollster

This article originally appeared on The Hill:

Republican pollster Conor Maguire said in an interview that aired Tuesday on Hill.TV’s “What America’s Thinking” that the progressive wing of the Democratic Party would “lose their minds” if Hillary Clinton launched a third presidential bid. 

“I think the new wing of the party would absolutely lose their minds if Hillary came back and tried to redirect it back towards her,” Maguire, a senior client strategist at WPA Intelligence, told Hill.TV’s Joe Concha on “What America’s Thinking.”

“They have fought so hard to really readjust the party and get themselves back on track, and Hillary would just be an absolute step in the wrong direction for them,” he continued.

Former Clinton adviser Mark Penn and Andrew Stein, a former Democratic Manhattan borough president and president of the New York City Council, both predicted in an op-ed published earlier this week that Clinton would launch a presidential run in 2020.

“True to her name, Mrs. Clinton will fight this out until the last dog dies,” they wrote. “She won’t let a little thing like two stunning defeats stand in the way of her claim to the White House.”

Various progressive candidates, including Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have aligned themselves closely with Clinton’s progressive 2016 primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sanders has been floated as a potential 2020 Democratic contender.

— Julia Manchester