The top 15 possible 2020 Democratic nominees, ranked

We are a little more than a year away from the start of the 2020 presidential race.

In many ways it's already begun, of course, with President Trump running ads and doing campaign rallies. One Democratic congressman has even launched a campaign. But November 2018, right after the midterm election, is when a slew of Democrats are going to be really tempted to throw their hats in the ring. Given the field is likely to be as big as any we've ever seen, there will be a premium on getting started early, raising money and building a base.

It will also be tempting because there's no 800-pound gorilla in the field. There's no Hillary Clinton or even a Barack Obama — a high-profile rising star who seems destined for big things if he wanted to run — that we can see right now. Yes, there are front-runners, but both of them — Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden — would be the oldest president ever elected by more than half a decade. The Democratic Party is in a huge state of flux, and it's not clear who's leading it. It's basically Lord of the Flies.

That makes what I'm about to do both wildly speculative and lengthy. Below are what I see as the top 15 contenders for the Democratic nomination in 2020, ranked in ascending order.

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