Former President Barack Obama recently caused a stir by praising Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s coronavirus economic plan. Obama’s message was widely seen as a nudge for presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden to choose her as his running mate.
“As she often does, @SenWarren provides a cogent summary of how federal policymakers should be thinking about the pandemic in the coming months,” Obama wrote in a tweet and linked a Vox interview with the Massachusetts and 2020 Democratic also-ran, in which she detailed policy proposals to aid people suffering from layoffs.
Obama’s tweet about Warren, who ended her presidential bid last month, is the first time he has commented on a former candidate. For the most part, Obama’s tweets have remained outside presidential politics.
At best, his tweets were previously seen as largely supportive of Democratic causes, such as protecting the Affordable Care Act or sharing articles talking about the importance of social distancing. He offered a veiled attack on President Trump in criticizing “those who denied warnings of a pandemic.”
But Obama’s support for Warren is something new since he left office in 2016, particularly for a former president who has made a point of staying out of interparty politics.
Some Democratic strategists, aided by liberal opinion writers, say a Biden-Warren ticket would unify the party. Yet others say Biden, who was Obama’s two-term vice president, would have good reason to bypass Warren for the understudy role, based on her abysmal primary performance.
“Given Warren’s performance in the primary — her support skewed more toward women and college-educated voters — I’m not sure she would help Biden expand his appeal all that much. Biden already should do well in highly-educated suburban areas, with or without Warren on the ticket,” said election analyst Kyle Kondik.
Warren’s limited strength in the primary, the well-educated and relatively high earning in cities, are already seen as reliable Democratic voters. The fact that they chose Warren, 70, over socialist Bernie Sanders, 78, in the primary suggests they remain loyal to the Democratic Party, despite their favored candidate losing.
Traditionally, vice presidents are meant to shore up support from areas where the nominee’s campaign feels vulnerable. For Obama, in 2008 that meant Joe Biden, now 77, who was believed to help win white, working-class voters.
For Trump in 2016, then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence helped ease concerns by evangelicals and traditional Republicans skeptical that an outsider running on a heterodox platform would govern conservatively.
“Biden may want to choose a running mate that has demonstrated more appeal to either nonwhite voters or white voters without a four-year college degree; who that person might be is up for debate, but I don’t think it’s Warren,” said Kondick.
Nonelectoral reasons may also spell trouble for those who wish to see Warren in the White House in 2021. The two have a longstanding history of policy disagreements that have spilled over to personal attacks.
In 2005, the two sparred over a bankruptcy bill before the Senate that made it harder for average people to declare bankruptcy in the United States. That law’s repeal became a leading component of Warren’s platform during her presidential campaign.
During the race, Warren consistently jabbed Biden for his supposed moderation and willingness to work with Republicans.
“Unlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I’m not betting my agenda on the naive hope that if Democrats adopt Republican critiques of progressive policies or make vague calls for unity, that somehow the wealthy and well-connected will stand down,” Warren said in New Hampshire during a December rally. “Unlike some candidates for the Democratic nomination, I’m not counting on Republican politicians having an epiphany and suddenly supporting the kinds of tax increases on the rich or big business accountability they have opposed under Democratic presidents for a generation.”
In an opinion article the month before, Biden condemned the “elitist” and “unyielding” attitudes of his Democratic opponents, although it was obvious he was referring to Warren.
Warren has also yet endorse Biden for the nomination, something virtually every other major candidate has done so far. That move has led some Democratic strategists to wonder about whether Warren has her sights on something bigger: 2024.
“Why would he pick someone who would instantly be the front-runner for the nomination in 2024,” said Scott Ferson, a Massachusetts-based Democratic strategist. “He’ll be 82 in 2024. Any of the 20 competitors would be a problem for him.”
