 [Free Beacon] Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper admitted Tuesday it's hard to get donations from Democrats when his campaign isn't promising things like free health care and college.
Hickenlooper wouldn't answer MSNBC anchor Craig Melvin when asked about his second-quarter fundraising total, sheepishly saying "we certainly haven't raised $24 million," a reference to Mayor Pete Buttigieg's latest haul. Hickenlooper saw several campaign departures this week as he struggles to stay relevant in the crowded 2020 field, barely polling at 1 percent in national and early-primary state polls.
"The bottom line is for a small campaign like us from a, you know‐Colorado's about 6 million or a little less than 6 million people‐it's harder to raise money because we don't‐we're not promising free health care or, you know, free tuition for everyone, forgive student debt," Hickenlooper said. "We're trying to present a picture of this country and what it can be in the future that will resonate with everyone, and that has, you know, that's a harder vehicle by which to get small donors."
Melvin said it sounded like Hickenlooper was describing two key Democratic proposals‐canceling student debt and free health care‐as "pie-in-the-sky" ideas.
"Yeah, I think they'd be very hard to implement," Hickenlooper said. "One of the points I've tried to make is as Democrats I think we've very clearly got to say that we're not socialists, and many people view those large, you know, large expansions of government as in some way socialist. I'm not saying they are, I'm just saying that the Republicans are going to say we're socialists and I think we've very clearly got to say socialism is not the solution. I can say that."
Melvin said he found Hickenlooper's remark telling, as it seemed to concede most of the Democratic contenders needed to convince a large portion of the country that they weren't all socialists. 
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