The following is the first edition of a monthly series chronicling the 2020 United States presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month's biggest stories.
This month's spotlight on the campaign trail includes interviews with the vice presidential nominees of the Constitution and Libertarian parties as well as the chosen running mate of the leading Green Party presidential candidate. 
At the beginning of May, with the Coronavirus Pandemic ongoing and stay-at-home orders easing in some states, presumptive US Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden led incumbent US President Donald Trump of the Republican Party in the RealClearPolitics average of head-to-head opinion polls, 47.4 percent to 42.1 percent.  In an April 30 – May 4 Monmouth poll with then-US Libertarian Party presidential candidate Congressman Justin Amash included, Biden led Trump 47 percent to 40 percent with 5 percent for Amash. 
Congressman Amash, who changed his party registration to Libertarian, contended for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination, but dropped out of the race just ahead of the party's online National Convention. At the convention, the party's 1996 vice presidential nominee, Jo Jorgensen, won the presidential nomination.  Podcaster Spike Cohen received the vice presidential nomination.  In other third parties, at its own online national convention, the US Constitution Party nominated a ticket of businessman Don Blankenship for president and Michigan Taxpayers Party chairman William Mohr for vice president.  For the US Green Party, former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura joined the party and had signaled an intent to run but ultimately decided against it.   Labor activist Howie Hawkins broadened his lead among pledged Green Party delegates, approaching the number required to secure the nomination at the online Green National Convention, scheduled for July 11. Hawkins, who is also the presidential nominee of the Socialist Party USA, had his hopes of a left-wing coalition dashed when it was reported the ballot-qualified Peace and Freedom Party of California and the Liberty Union Party of Vermont chose Party for Socialism and Liberation presidential nominee Gloria La Riva as their presidential nominee.   Hawkins selected 2016 Socialist Party USA vice presidential nominee Angela Walker to be his running mate.     
Jo JorgensenImage: Jo Jorgensen for President.
Don BlankenshipImage: Brianhayden1980.
Howie HawkinsImage: GreenIn2010.
Gloria La RivaImage: Pax Ahimsa Gethen.
Biden first addressed the allegations of sexual assault from former staffer Tara Reade, on television program Morning Joe.  When confronted with the accusation he penetrated Reade, against her will, using his fingers under her clothing in 1993, Biden told host Mika Brzezinski "No, it is not true. I am saying unequivocally it never, never happened, and it didn't. It never happened."  Meanwhile, a new allegation surfaced from a woman, a niece of Biden's 2008 US Senate opponent Christine O'Donnell, who claimed Biden commented on the size of her breasts when she was 14 years old.  The campaign called the statement "absolutely false."  An organizer said Biden was not at the event specified.  O'Donnell defended her niece's claim, saying it may have taken place at a different time. 
Biden searched for a female running mate. 2018 gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Congresswoman Val Demings of Florida, Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Senator Kamala Harris of California, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer were mentioned as possibilities.  Biden said he planned to announce his choice around August 1.  Continuing a trend from earlier months, Biden made a couple of gaffes in May.  First, he juxtaposed numbers, claiming 85,000 Americans were unemployed and millions had died from coronavirus.  More consequential, he told African American radio host Charlamagne tha God "if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black."  Backlash from the statement led Biden to express "I shouldn’t have been so cavalier [...]  No one should have to vote for any party based on their race, their religion, their background."  In another incident, as Biden remarked on investigation, shortly before President Trump took office, of then-National Security Advisor-designee General Michael Flynn, Biden failed to mention his own request at the time to unmask Flynn's identity.  The unmasking came to light shortly thereafter in a release of documents related to alleged FISA abuse,  which President Trump described as "Obamagate."  An analysis of anti-Biden memes showed "Dementia Joe" as a popular characterization of Biden. 
President Trump made several controversial statements in May.  Early in the month, he received additional fallout from a statement he made in late April about the use of disinfectant inside the body to treat coronavirus.  He hinted that the White House Coronavirus Task Force would be disbanded, but later reversed himself.  Nevertheless, the task force's daily press conferences did cease.  Trump said he himself took the drug hydroxychloroquine, which he promoted early in the pandemic as a counter-measure against coronavirus, despite reports about the side effects.  He tweeted support for the protests to end statewide shutdown orders despite it undermining his own guidelines.  He also promoted an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory suggesting Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough was involved in the death of a Congressional intern in 2001.  When Trump tweeted that state plans to use mail-in ballots to allow people to vote from home would result in voter fraud, Twitter placed a disclaimer "fact checking" the tweet.  In response, Trump issued an executive order making social media that exercises editorial control open to liability.  Twitter continued to edit Trump's tweets.  Trump tweeted about the riots that followed the death of George Floyd, an African American man who died in Minneapolis while a police officer restrained him.  Part of Trump's tweet included the statement, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."  Twitter disallowed comments and likes and placed a warning over the tweet alerting viewers it promoted violence.  Trump later said he meant looting leads to somebody getting shot, perhaps by rioters.  The phrase itself has historic, racial overtones, of which Trump claimed to be unaware.  Meanwhile, Trump attended the joint NASA-Space X launch and delivered a speech to mark the occasion.
By the end of the month, with coronavirus deaths surpassing 100,000  and protests and riots related to the death of Floyd spreading throughout the nation, Biden maintained his lead over Trump in the RealClearPolitics average of opinion polls, 48.4 percent to 42.5 percent. 
At the Constitution Party's 2020 National Convention conducted online May 2, the party nominated businessman Don Blankenship for president on the second ballot.  For vice president, the party unanimously chose Michigan Taxpayers Party — the Constitution Party's affiliate in Michigan — chairman William Mohr. 
While Blankenship has been widely covered for his role as CEO of Massey Energy during the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster that resulted in the deaths of 29 miners, his subsequent conviction for misdemeanor conspiracy to violate safety standards willfully, his one year imprisonment, and his unsuccessful 2018 campaign for the Republican Party's US Senate nomination in West Virginia,  Mohr is relatively unknown. He was a candidate for Michigan House of Representatives in every election from 2006 to 2014.  He received 3 percent of the vote in his 2012 run and 2.3 percent in his 2014 run.
In 2016, the Constitution Party ticket of Darrell Castle for president and Scott Bradley for vice president received 203,091 votes (0.15 percent)  with ballot access in 24 states.   For 2020 the party is currently on the ballot in 14 states. 
With Wikinews, Mohr discussed how his nomination for vice president came about, his role on the Blankenship/Mohr ticket, and the prospects for the ticket.
((WSS))  How did your nomination for vice president come about? Did you seek the role or was it thrust upon you?
((WSS))  What are your thoughts on presidential nominee Don Blankenship? How do you complement him on the ticket?
((WSS))  With the coronavirus pandemic hampering ballot access efforts, is it possible to improve on the electoral performance of 2016 presidential nominee Darrell Castle?  What can you do to improve the visibility of the ticket?
On May 23 at the online Libertarian National Convention, the Libertarian Party nominated Clemson University psychologist Jo Jorgensen, the party's 1996 vice presidential nominee, for president on the fourth ballot.  The next day, the party nominated podcast host Jeremy "Spike" Cohen for vice president on the third ballot.  Cohen, who went into the convention as the running mate of performance artist Vermin Supreme, was not the candidate Jorgensen initially backed for the vice presidential nomination.
Cohen, who goes by his nickname "Spike", which he has explained derives from a character on ‘’My Little Pony’’, was initially a neoconservative but shifted to libertarianism.  In 2016, he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He is co-owner of Muddied Waters Media, which features his podcast (((My Fellow Americans))).
With Wikinews, Cohen discussed his journey from neoconservatism to libertarianism, his role on the Jorgensen-Cohen ticket, and how to improve on the performance of the party's 2016 ticket of former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson for president and former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld for vice president, which received 4,489,235 votes (3.27 percent).

((WSS))  What was it that turned you away from neoconservatism to begin your transition to libertarianism?
((WSS))  How would you describe your role as vice presidential nominee?  How do you complement Jo Jorgensen on the ticket?
((WSS))  How can you improve on the performance of Johnson-Weld in 2016?
On May 5, US Green Party presidential frontrunner and the presidential nominee of Socialist Party USA, Howie Hawkins, announced his selection of a running mate for the 2020 presidential race.  Hawkins, a union leader and co-founder of the Green Party approaching securing the delegates required for the Green Party's presidential nomination, tapped Socialist Party USA's 2016 vice presidential nominee Angela Walker. 
Walker, a truck driver who currently resides in South Carolina, first met Hawkins in 2014 while she was running for Sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin as an independent socialist and Hawkins was running for governor of New York for the Green Party.  Walker received 20 percent of the vote in her race  and Hawkins received five percent in his.   That showing was Hawkins' best in three successive runs for governor — 2010, 2014, 2018.  In 2016, Walker was Mimi Soltysik's running mate with Socialist Party USA.  The ticket received 2,705 votes.
The Green Party, which received 1,457,226 votes (1.06 percent) with the 2016 ticket of Jill Stein for president and Ajamu Baraka for vice president, is to nominate its ticket officially at its online national convention July 11.
Wikinews reached out to Walker to discuss how her past experience impacts the current race, why Hawkins/Walker is the best choice for leftists and socialists, and what goals she has for this campaign. 
((WSS))  How does your experience as a nominee for vice president in 2016 help in the current campaign? How is your role the same or different from 2016?

((WSS))  Why should leftists and socialists support Howie Hawkins over Gloria La Riva or the Bernie Sanders-backed candidate Joe Biden?

((WSS))  What are your goals for this campaign?

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On the campaign trail in the USA, May 2020