INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Michelle Obama In 2020? Democrats Beg First Lady To Reconsider Running For Office After Donald Trump’s Victory

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 07:14 PST, Nov 9, 2016

Could Michelle Obama run for president in 2020?

Though she has repeatedly put off the idea of running for office, the internet now hopes Michelle might change her mind.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s shocking victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, many despondent people have turned to the hope that the current First Lady of the United States may go back on her vow to stay out of politics and instead mount a run to stop Trump from becoming a two-term president.

Even before the results were finalized on Election Night, when Donald Trump was sneaking out surprising wins in Florida and North Carolina and starting to look like he may actually win the race, many people were already turning to thoughts of Michelle Obama running in 2020. Many of them flooded to social media, noting that Michelle Obama could end up being the light at the end of the tunnel.

Michelle Obama’s popularity was glaring this election cycle, with her speech at the Democratic National Convention considered better than the ones delivered by Hillary Clinton and by her own husband, Barack Obama. The enthusiasm for the First Lady was also seen when Michelle was tapped by the Clinton campaign to make a series of appearances in swing states in the final weeks of the election. She held something close to rock star status, even among a Democratic Party deep with high-profile surrogates.

But those hoping that Michelle Obama will run for president in 2020 will likely be disappointed. Barack Obama has said repeatedly that his wife has no aspirations for holding political office, even as the question came up again and again during the election cycle.

“She will never run for office,” Barack Obama said in a radio interview on Sway in the Morning (via Time). “She is as talented and brilliant a person as there is, and I could not be prouder of her, but Michelle does not have the patience or the inclination to actually be a candidate herself. And that’s one thing y’all can take to the bank.”

Barack Obama added that Michelle Obama had other projects in mind after their family left the White House.

“We’re going to continue to be very active in issues we care about,” he said. “We’re going to be doing a lot of work. We’ll just be doing it a different way.”

Michelle Obama has worked closely on some White House initiatives, pushing for healthier school lunches and prompting worldwide education for young girls through the program Let Girls Learn.

Many of the calls for Michelle Obama to run for president in 2020 were likely a reaction to the sore feelings of the unprecedented Trump victory. There were nearly no national pundits who predicted his win, and all the polling pointed toward a comfortable victory for Hillary Clinton. The gut punch of losing the presidency while losing supposedly “safe” states like Pennsylvania left many yearning for the widely popular First Lady.

https://twitter.com/zdmusicartistry/status/796439737015926784

And it was actually Barack Obama doing much of the work to heal these wounds. He made a public address on Wednesday, one mostly aimed at those left hurt from Trump’s victory.

“Now, everybody is sad when their side loses an election, but the day after we have to remember that we’re actually all on one team,” he said (via Time). “This is an intramural scrimmage. We’re not Democrats first. We’re not Republicans first. We are Americans first. We’re patriots first.”

That hasn’t quelled the calls for Michelle Obama to run for president in 2020, with many disenchanted Democrats still taking to social media in the hopes that she will change her mind about running for office.

[Featured Image by Ralph Freso/Getty Images]

Share this article: Michelle Obama In 2020? Democrats Beg First Lady To Reconsider Running For Office After Donald Trump’s Victory
Michelle Obama
More from Inquisitr