Howard Schultz: From Starbucks to White House, who is the CEO 'seriously considering' running for president?
Here's everything you need to know about coffee magnate
Former Starbucks CEO and Chairman Howard Schultz said he is āseriously consideringā vying for the White House in the upcoming 2020 presidential election as a ācentrist Independent,ā but stopped short of making an official announcement.
āWeāre living at a most fragile time,ā Mr Schultz said in an interview with CBSās 60 Minutes aired on Sunday. āNot only the fact that this President is not qualified to be the president, but the fact that both parties are consistently not doing whatās necessary on behalf of the American people and are engaged every single day in revenge politics.ā
Mr Schultzās piqued interest has concernedāand even angeredāsome Democrats that an independent bid for the White House could help President Donald Trump get re-elected in the 2020 election by siphoning off votes from the Democratic nominee. He knows it too.
āIām putting myself in a position that I know is going to create hate, anger, disenfranchisement from friends, from Democrats,ā he added.
āIām concerned about one thing: Doing everything I can to help families who have been left behind, and to restore dignity and honor back in the Oval Office.ā
The 65-year-old coffee magnate would be an outlier among the list of potential presidential candidates in 2020: He has never run for public office before, is running third-party in a two-party system, and has almost no name recognition. However, what Mr Schultz does have is money, and a lot of it tooā$3.3bn.
If he decides to throw his hat in the ring, Mr Schultz will be joining a longāand still growingālist of presidential candidates who have announced, or are seeking, their bids to the White House. California Sen. Kamala Harris, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development JuliĆ”n Castro all have officially announced their candidates, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York have formed exploratory committees.
Here is everything you need to know about the Starbucks CEO running for president
He came from humble beginnings
Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, Mr Schultz grew up poor. He lived with his family in housing projects in the Canarsie neighbourhood. His father, Fred Schultz, was a high school drop-out, an ex-Army trooper, and worked as a truck driver to support the family. The elder Schultz never earned more than $20,000 from his blue-collar jobs, and with three children, he was never able to afford to buy a home.
Mr Schultz became the first person in his family to earn a college degree when he attended Northern Michigan University with a full scholarship playing football. Soon after graduating, he worked at the Xerox Corporation as a salesman, and quickly got promoted to full sales representative before jumping ship in 1979 as a general manager at a Swedish drip-coffee manufacturer. In 1981, Mr Schultz was introduced to Starbucks Coffee Company while monitoring their orders, and after expressing his admiration for their coffee knowledge and his interest in working for the, he joined the company as director of marketing.
The Brooklyn billionaire isnāt afraid to mix politics with his business
The former Starbucks CEO made headlines in the past for his outright criticism of Mr Trump and other Republican politicos. Two days after Mr Trump announced his ban on refugees from several Muslim-majority countries, Mr Schultz announced that his Seattle-based coffee company would be hiring 10,000 refugees. Then in February 2017, the coffee magnate said the president created āchaosā that hurt the American economy in comments to employees. While appearing at a business conference in November 2017, Mr Schultz criticised the Republican tax plan before Congress passed it the following month.
In April 2018, Starbucks made headlines when the police who ended up arresting two black men waiting inside one of their stores in Philadelphia. The incident, captured on video, sparked outrage and calls for boycotts. Mr Schultz said he was āashamedā and āembarrassedā about the arrests, and said the incident proves racial bias was common and that āmany people in America are not prepared to talk about race.ā
In an unprecedented move for the company, then-Chairman Schultz and CEO Kevin Johnson announced that Starbucks will be closing 8,000 of its US stores for an afternoon to teach a training workshop about racial bias in cooperation with the NAACP and other progressive organisation.
āRacial bias does exist. Unconscious bias exists,āMr Schultz told CNNās Poppy Harlow. āWe need to have the conversation. We need to start.ā
Despite mulling over an independent bid, Mr Schultz is a ālifelong Democratā
In the 2016 presidential election, the self-described ālifelong Democratā endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. He donated $10,800 to her joint fundraising committee with the Democratic Party, CNBC reported. In 2016, he also donated $1,250 to Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, and $5,000 to VoteVets, a progressive political action committee led by veterans critical of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
He also donated to non-partisan groups. In 2018, he donated $50,000 to the With Honor Fund, a cross-partisan political action committee dedicated to elected veterans into public office.
Mr Schultz is progressive on social policy, but remains centrist on economic policy
The billionaire businessman believes āthe greatest threat domestically to the country is this $21tn debt hanging over the cloud of America and future generations.ā
He also has been on the record criticising tax cuts to the one per cent. āCorporate America did not need a tax cut to 21 percent when we could have done so much more for the people of the country,ā Mr Schultz said, referring to the GOP tax cut bill in 2017. āForty-five percent of the people in America donāt have $500 in the bank for a crisis.ā
But the coffee magnate has also lambasted Democrats for āveering too far left,ā citing that āmedicare-for-allā healthcare planāone supported by the likes of Democrat Senator Bernie Sandersāwould be impossible to pay for.
Mr Schultz takes a far less draconian approach to immigration than the president. He has called the need for border security, but calls for more compassion and fact-checking on the statistics hurled around when discussing immigration policy.
āI donāt think weāve got a very humane [immigration] policy. I think we need border security. But thereās a lot of nontruths,ā he told CNBC. āAs an example, two-thirds of the undocumented people were talking about are not people that have crossed a border. Theyāre here because their visa has expired.ā
He is also a big advocate for gun control. āSeventy percent of the American people want the kind of policy legislation that takes the guns of war out of the American peoplesā neighborhoods.ā
Mr Trump has a lot to say about the former Starbucks CEO running in 2020
As it is tradition, the president taunted Mr Schultz on Twitter following reports that the businessman is considering vying for the Oval Office in 2020.
āHoward Schultz doesnāt have the āgutsā to run for President! Watched him on @60Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the āsmartest person.ā Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!ā
Although he is potentially seeking a career in politics, the former Starbucks chairman is sick of ārevenge politicsā
In his 60 Minutes interview, Mr Schultz has some choice words for his critics, including Democrats, that are bothered with his interest in running as an independent in 2020.
āI want to see the American people win. I want to see America win,ā he said. āI donāt care if youāre a Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, Republican. Bring me your ideas. And I will be an independent person who will embrace those ideas because I am not, in any way, in bed with a party.ā
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