Article snippet: Sen. MORE (D-Mass.) fired the starting pistol for the 2020 presidential race on Monday when she announced she was forming an exploratory committee for a White House bid. Warren is the first top tier candidate to take such a major step — but plenty of others are expected to follow soon. Here, The Hill presents its initial rankings of the Democratic field. The old cliche holds that Republicans fall in line and Democrats fall in love when it comes to selecting presidential nominees. If that’s true, it is good news for O’Rourke, who excited Democrats nationwide even while failing in his bid to unseat Sen. MORE (R-Texas) in the fall. O’Rourke came within 3 points of defeating Cruz in the strongly Republican state. More to the point, he proved to be a magnetic presence on the campaign trail and a fundraising juggernaut. He raised an astonishing $38 million in the third quarter of 2018 alone. A number of aides to former President Obama have also talked up O’Rourke, drawing comparisons between his appeal and that of the former president. Obama himself told his former aide David Axelrod that O’Rourke exhibited a similar sense of authenticity. “The reason I was able to make a connection with a sizable portion of the country was because people had a sense that I said what I meant,” Obama told Axelrod, adding of O’Rourke, “it felt as if he based his statements and his positions on what he believed.” There are still plenty of skeptics. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, himself ... Link to the full article to read more