JUDY WOODRUFF: It may seem early, but the race to take on President Trump is coming
into focus.
Lisa Desjardins has the latest.
BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm running to serve you as president of the
United States of America.
LISA DESJARDINS: Another week, another candidate.
Beto O'Rourke is two days into his presidential campaign, and has spent both of those days,
as one does, in Iowa.
A backbench Democratic congressman from El Paso, Texas, O'Rourke gained fame for his
unorthodox and social-media friendly campaigning, speaking directly on Facebook and skateboarding
on the trail.
He is also a fund-raising juggernaut, raising $80 million in his Texas Senate race last
year, mostly from small donors.
That wasn't enough, and he lost a close three-point race to Republican Ted Cruz.
A moderate and himself a multimillionaire, critics question if O'Rourke can appeal to
enough core Democratic voters.
He is specifically aiming for voters in both parties.
BETO O'ROURKE: I want to show up everywhere for everyone.
LISA DESJARDINS: Also in Iowa, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who this week met the requirement
to be included in Democratic debates by raising money from 65,000 different donors.
Meanwhile, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders focused south, on South Carolina, with an
event in Charleston last night.
SEN.
BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), Presidential Candidate: Our job is to complete what we started, and
we are going to turn our vision and our progressive agenda into reality.
We are going to bring justice to America.
LISA DESJARDINS: And while the race is taking shape, what may be the biggest name remains
on the sideline.
AUDIENCE: Run, Joe, run!
LISA DESJARDINS: Former Vice President Joe Biden indicated this week in a speech to a
firefighters union that he's inclined to take on President Trump.
JOSEPH BIDEN, Former Vice President of the United States: In America, everyone gets a
shot.
That's what the next president of the United States needs to understand, and that what
I don't think this current president understands at all.
LISA DESJARDINS: In a race with no clear front-runner, the former V.P. leads the wide-open pack in
these early days.
A Monmouth University poll this week found 28 percent of Democratic voters back Biden,
with 25 percent for Sanders.
Both are also the two who have run national races before.
The top newcomer to presidential politics is Kamala Harris, at 10 percent in this poll,
which gave voters a long list of some 23 candidates or potential candidates to choose from.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.