New York Mayor Bill de Blasio to challenge Hillary in 2016?

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, once Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager for her 2000 U.S. Senate bid, may launch a presidential campaign to be the “leftist alternative” to the former Secretary of State. Reports indicate he wants to be drafted into the campaign and could fill the void left if Elizabeth Warren passes on a presidential run, which looks more than likely.

Report from the UK Daily Mail:

Bill de Blasio is going up against Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential candidate, it has been claimed.

The Mayor of New York is allegedly entering the race as a ‘leftist’ alternative to Clinton in the hopes that this will see him represent the party in the 2016 elections.

This claims come in the wake of a television appearance last week, just hours before Clinton announced her candidacy, where de Blasio refused to back her.

De Blasio’s intentions to throw his hat in the ring as Democrat presidential candidate comes from a ‘national party operative’, according to the New York Post.

The mayor’s bid for presidency is backed by the Working Families Party, and he hopes that left-leaning ‘progressive activists’ will join them in supporting him over the coming months, the source claims.

‘De Blasio and his advisers are trying to position the mayor as the ‘draft’ candidate for the left in 2016. That’s why he refused to endorse Hillary last week,’ the party operative told the Post.

The 53-year-old has yet to back Clinton, despite the fact that he was campaign manager of her U.S. Senate bid in 2000, an indication that the rumours of his intentions to run for president may be true.

The New York City mayor, known to be more liberal than Clinton on most issues, surprised many Democrats when he declined to endorse his former boss during an interview last week.

While he doesn’t have the larger name recognition that Elizabeth Warren does, de Blasio has to be pretty close after taking down Anthony Weiner to win the Mayorship in New York. He’s a self-proclaimed leftist with backing from the Working Families Party, which is a very progressive party that has also been urging Elizabeth Warren to enter the 2016 race. More and more, it looks like Warren will pass, and de Blasio is offering himself up as the next in line to carry the lefitst mantle.