2020 Democratic candidates’ dogs deserve all the votes

The 2020 Democratic candidates’ dogs are very good.

The first of the 2020 Democratic candidates’ debates begin Wednesday night (9 p.m. ET on NBC), and whether a viewer agrees with their politics or not, there’s one thing that’s for sure: Their dogs are very good boys and girls, and they would get votes for sure if voting for the First Dog was allowed.

Unfortunately, that’s not a thing, though it feels like it would make the voting turnout skyrocket.

Anyway, many candidates have dogs, who may or may not be helping with their people’s campaigns. At Dog O’Day we mostly try to avoid real-world politics whenever possible as they are confusing and stressful, preferring to watch reruns of The West Wing on Netflix instead. We do approve of these doggos, though.

Major Biden the German Shepherd, who was a rescue dog adopted by former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill last year, is on Twitter with the straightforward handle @MajorBiden.

Major also has an older brother named Champ.

He mostly retweets things instead of posting his own thoughts, but that’s all right, it takes all kinds of posters to make a social media world.

Bailey Warren is a Golden Retriever who belongs to Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren. As he states on his Instagram bio, “I’m just a Golden Retriever with big dreams of runs on the White House lawn.” He also notes that he’s not officially part of his mom’s campaign.

His Instagram and Twitter handles are @BaileyForFirstDog and @FirstDogBailey, respectively.

He was named after Jimmy Stewart’s character in It’s a Wonderful Life, according to Politico, and for more information on him, see Kimberley’s story here.

The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg, has two dogs named Truman and Buddy, they can be followed on Twitter with the handle @FirstDogsSB. While it’s not known exactly when the last presidency with multiple First Dogs in the White House, it might have been John F Kennedy’s administration.

Truman also operates an Instagram account at @FirstDogSB, which he hasn’t pupdated in a while.

They are very sneaky doggos and prone to stealing coffee mugs. They also talk in a dialect of Doggo Lingo that could be called “Toddlerish,” which makes sense, as psychologist Stanley Coren believes the average dog has a vocabulary about the same as the average two-year-old child.

If elected, Pete Buttigieg would be the first Milennial ever to reside in the Oval Office.

Texas senator Beto O’Rourke has a Labrador named Artemis, named after the Greek goddess of hunting (the Romans renamed her Diana). She has two fur sisters named Rose and Silver as well, but as her Twitter bio states: “I am Beto O’Rourke’s most famous pet!”

She’s pretty confident her dad will do well in the initial debates.

She also takes her responsibilities as future First Dog very seriously – even submitting (unwillingly) to wearing dresses on occasion and posing for Vanity Fair photoshoots. Still, she prefers to have adventures, and likely enjoys pool parties.

We think she would get along super well with Zoe Dumont, who belongs to actress Emma Dumont, best known for playing Lorna Dane/Polaris on The Gifted.

Artemis and Truman both voiced their sadness last month at the passing of Tartar Sauce, who was better known to the world as Grumpy Cat.

While Drake University mascot Griff the Bulldog can’t vote, he did enjoy meeting O’Rourke when he visited the campus several weeks ago, and Artemis was a good sport about sharing her person on a temporary basis.

President Donald Trump is not a pet person, as the Washington Post noted.

There have been 45 presidents so far (since Grover Cleveland is counted twice due to serving non-consecutive terms), and 32 of them have had at least one dog in office, according to Wikipedia.

The most famous First Dog would be Franklin Roosevelt’s Scottish Terrier Fala, and the most recent was Bo Obama the Portuguese Water Dog.

The most literary First Dog would be Millie Bush, who wrote Millie’s Book, and contributed an essay to Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul (see our review).

The Week has a full breakdown of all the 2020 Democratic candidates’ pets; by their count at least 11 candidates have pets.

Whatever happens during the lengthy election season (which lasts a little over five dog years), one of the 2020 Democratic candidates will win the nomination, and the good dogs will support their humans win or lose.