Pardon my ignorance, but I never heard of Howard Schultz before his appearance on 60 minutes stating that he is considering running for president in 2020 as an independent. I must confess that he made a very favorable impression, based on his treatment of Starbuck employees and his contentious critique of the Trump administration. I would give serious evaluation of his candidacy, even though it would compete with the progressive Democratic candidates. Being a billionaire should not automatically disqualify a person to be president. The voters must do their own research.
I must confess that I did vote for Ralph Nader in 2000, when his third-party candidacy was blamed for allowing the devastating Bush II era to begin. And I voted for Jill Stein in 2016, although she didn't garner enough votes to change the results.
There does remain a hint of a grand conspiracy by the billionaire neoconservatives that Schultz, despite all his attractiveness, is a sham candidate to act as the Ralph Nader candidacy of the 2020 elections to counter the rising influence of the progressive democrats. If he were a true progressive, wouldn't he want want to join the party and bring new blood into Congress as well?