Mark Cuban will not run for President in 2020

After more than a fair amount of speculation surrounding Mark Cuban’s possible political future, the Dallas Mavericks owner will not enter the 2020 presidential race. Cuban made the announcement during an interview by Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley on TNT’s The Steam Room. It was something he was considering, though.

“For 2020? Not very. Something crazy would have to happen,” Cuban said. “You know, I would’ve done it if my family hadn’t voted it down. We literally had the dinner table conversation and they were like, ‘No way.’ It was a four-to-one vote and I was the only one.”

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Cuban has become a news fixture for the steps he’s taken and the ideas and positions he’s put forward, highlighting potential political platform issues. Those actions landed him a position on President Trump’s advisory council for re-opening the United States.

Locally, Cuban’s efforts include helping to pay hourly workers at the American Airlines Center for missed games, supporting small businesses, and providing financial assistance for childcare services for frontline workers dealing with the virus.

With a net worth valuation of $4.3 billion, according to Forbes, Cuban is advocating for the workers who have taken the brunt of the economic fallout during the crisis. He appeared on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah and said that trickle down economic policies can no longer be seen and feasible. Instead, the economy needs to shift and place more importance on foundational workers rather than shareholders.

He’s also been an outspoken critic of the handling of the crisis as the nation’s leadership at the federal and state level fails to muster a coherent strategy to combat COVID-19. He’s taken to Twitter and elsewhere to chastise both Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington for failing to act with urgency to help the American people.

Most recently, Cuban hired a team of secret shoppers to see if proper safety standards are in place as Texas begins to re-open on the orders of Governor Greg Abbott. So far, the results are “not good,” he writes on his blog.

This likely isn’t the first time that Cuban has mulled the idea of entering politics. He was very active leading up to the 2016 election, in which he endorsed Hillary Clinton, hinting at a possible future run for office then. How else can you interpret a video salute to the U.S. flag that aired before the Mavericks’ 2017-18 home-opener?

Those hoping for the kind of change and leadership that Cuban could potentially bring to the White House will have to keep waiting. While he may not leap into the 2020 Presidential Election, Cuban isn’t ruling out a possible run down the road.

“2024 is never out of the question. But look, it’s just such a crazy world right now. It’s so partisan and everybody wants to blame everybody else or it’s nobody’s fault,” Cuban said. “We talked earlier about who do you trust your life with? There’s just nobody people trust right now.

“That said, there are a lot of candidates, there are a lot of people that would be better than me as a candidate. But it is what it is. This is the world we live in and you have to have a platform. I’ll never say no, but it’s a longshot that it happens this time around.”