Two powerful groups of progressives that helped put President Obama into the White House have collected over 242,000 signatures on a bid to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren into the 2016 Democratic primaries and are holding an inaugural event in New Hampshire Saturday.
MoveOn.org and Democracy for America, ignoring the latest comments from the Massachusetts senator dismissing a run against Hillary Clinton, hope to use the rally in Manchester, N.H., to show Warren that she has the same kind of support previous insurgent candidates like Obama had.
The two groups man the effort “Run Warren Run,” and have collected over 242,000 signatures on a petition encouraging the progressive to enter the race.
Democracy for America spokesman Neil Sroka said that Run Warren Run has already hired staff and plans to open office in early primary and caucus states, just like the pro-Clinton group, Ready for Hillary.
He also issued a statement Tuesday brushing off Warren’s latest comments in Forbes about not running:
“We understand that reporters are required to follow every twist and turn of the 2016 race, but let’s be clear: This isn’t a new position for Senator Elizabeth Warren. Sen. Warren has been clear for years that she isn’t planning on running. If she were running, there wouldn’t be a need for a draft effort. We launched the Run Warren Run campaign to show Senator Elizabeth Warren the tremendous amount of grassroots enthusiasm and momentum that exists for her entering the 2016 presidential race and to encourage her to change her mind.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
