Jewish LA mayor visiting South Carolina ahead of decision on 2020 run

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is returning to South Carolina next month as he continues to mull a 2020 presidential bid.

The Charleston County Democratic Party says Garcetti will give the keynote address at next month’s Blue Jam. The event has become a showcase for national-level Democrats.

This is Garcetti’s second trip in a year to South Carolina, home to the first-in-the-South presidential primary, where in February he hosted a fundraiser that brought in $100,000 for the state’s Democrats.

In a wide-ranging interview earlier this month, the two-term Democratic mayor — who already has also visited the important presidential election states of Iowa and New Hampshire — said he intends to make a decision on his candidacy by March. No candidate has ever ascended directly from a mayor’s office to the presidency, but Garcetti has argued that the work of mayors is essentially the type of chief executive work a president does.

New York’s Michael Bloomberg, who like Garcetti is Jewish and only has mayoral experience, has also mulled a 2020 run.

— AP