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  • JUDY WOODRUFF: It may seem early, but the race to take on President Trump is coming

  • into focus.

  • Lisa Desjardins has the latest.

  • BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm running to serve you as president of the

  • United States of America.

  • LISA DESJARDINS: Another week, another candidate.

  • Beto O'Rourke is two days into his presidential campaign, and has spent both of those days,

  • as one does, in Iowa.

  • A backbench Democratic congressman from El Paso, Texas, O'Rourke gained fame for his

  • unorthodox and social-media friendly campaigning, speaking directly on Facebook and skateboarding

  • on the trail.

  • He is also a fund-raising juggernaut, raising $80 million in his Texas Senate race last

  • year, mostly from small donors.

  • That wasn't enough, and he lost a close three-point race to Republican Ted Cruz.

  • A moderate and himself a multimillionaire, critics question if O'Rourke can appeal to

  • enough core Democratic voters.

  • He is specifically aiming for voters in both parties.

  • BETO O'ROURKE: I want to show up everywhere for everyone.

  • LISA DESJARDINS: Also in Iowa, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who this week met the requirement

  • to be included in Democratic debates by raising money from 65,000 different donors.

  • Meanwhile, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders focused south, on South Carolina, with an

  • event in Charleston last night.

  • SEN.

  • BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), Presidential Candidate: Our job is to complete what we started, and

  • we are going to turn our vision and our progressive agenda into reality.

  • We are going to bring justice to America.

  • LISA DESJARDINS: And while the race is taking shape, what may be the biggest name remains

  • on the sideline.

  • AUDIENCE: Run, Joe, run!

  • LISA DESJARDINS: Former Vice President Joe Biden indicated this week in a speech to a

  • firefighters union that he's inclined to take on President Trump.

  • JOSEPH BIDEN, Former Vice President of the United States: In America, everyone gets a

  • shot.

  • That's what the next president of the United States needs to understand, and that what

  • I don't think this current president understands at all.

  • LISA DESJARDINS: In a race with no clear front-runner, the former V.P. leads the wide-open pack in

  • these early days.

  • A Monmouth University poll this week found 28 percent of Democratic voters back Biden,

  • with 25 percent for Sanders.

  • Both are also the two who have run national races before.

  • The top newcomer to presidential politics is Kamala Harris, at 10 percent in this poll,

  • which gave voters a long list of some 23 candidates or potential candidates to choose from.

  • For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It may seem early, but the race to take on President Trump is coming

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