Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Ends Presidential Bid
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz visits Fox News Channel on April 2, 2019 in New York City. Image by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, is dropping his bid for an independent run for the presidency.
Schultz said he feared his candidacy could keep a moderate Democrat from ousting President Donald Trump.
The billionaire philanthropist announced his decision in a letter Friday to supporters, Axios reported.
Schultz, a longtime Democrat, launched his bid earlier this year because he feared that a left-wing Democrat would not oust Trump, whose policies and style he reviles.
“If I went forward, there is a risk that my name would appear on ballots even if a moderate Democrat wins the nomination, and that is not a risk I am willing to take,” Schultz said in his letter.
Schultz has said that his philanthropy is extensively informed by his Judaism.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
