Shared from the 3/7/2019 Houston Chronicle eEdition

Schultz airs presidential views

Former Starbucks boss tells Rice crowd he’ll enter race if Democratic nominee too leftist

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Brett Coomer / Staff photographer

Howard Schultz says he believes polls suggest that Americans want a third choice beyond the Democrats and Republicans.

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Brett Coomer / Staff photographer

Howard Schultz, left, speaks about leadership skills with Mark Jones at the Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, speaking to a small audience at Rice University, said he will run for president in 2020 if the Democratic nominee is too far left.

Schultz said he is seriously considering running as an independent candidate and would make a definitive decision by the summer.

“I’m going to try to do something that hasn’t been done before,” Schultz said, appearing to be referring to a third party presidential bid.

Schultz, worth $3.6 billion according to Forbes, spoke to a mix of undergraduate business students, alumni and donors as part of his tour of Texas, which includes visiting universities, festivals and town hall forums.

His anecdote-heavy speech largely focused on his leadership of Starbucks during company public relations crises, including the 2015 "Race Together" marketing campaign that largely backfired on social media, and a 2018 incident in which two black men were arrested at a Starbucks store in a racial profiling incident in Philadelphia.

But the speech also included campaign-ready talking points. He said he doubted that a Democrat in the White House would be able to move the country forward due to an inability to find compromise with Republicans in Congress. He spoke about two-party divisions and how he believed polls suggest Americans want a third choice.

“We probably all can agree, Republican or Democrat, there’s something not quite right (in the country),” Schultz said. “Most importantly, a lack of trust.”

Schultz served more than 20 years as Starbuck CEO over the course of two stints. He built Starbucks into a global phenomenon with more than 20,000 stores in dozens of countries. His book, “From the Ground Up: A journey to Reimagine the Promise of America,” was recently published.

Schultz has been criticized for considering a third-party run by Democrats, who fear he will siphon votes from the eventual Democratic nominee and help re-elect President Donald Trump. Schultz said he doesn’t want Trump to win, either, but also criticized the platforms of Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as too far to the left.

“I’m willing to say that the two-party system is broken,” Schultz said. “We think there’s apath to 270 (electoral college votes).” erin.douglas@chron.com twitter.com/erinmdouglas23

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