Elizabeth Warren was known for having a super-organized campaign team when she was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Now, her die-hard supporters are channeling that organizing energy to position her for the next best thing: the Democratic vice presidential nomination.
With the Massachusetts senator reportedly on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate short list, she is making a splash without overtly campaigning for the spot in endless interviews, like former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
More than 100 leading activists and Warren allies signed a letter last week urging Biden to pick Warren as his nominee. “A crisis election as big as 1932 requires a big running mate. So why not the best?” the letter said.
Warren was a featured guest for a high-dollar virtual fundraiser for Biden on Monday that sold out and raised $6 million — the most successful Biden fundraiser ever, and a stark shift from her strict refusal to hold such big-money events for her own presidential campaign.
Biden thanked Warren for making the fundraiser so successful. “Thank you for asking your friends to help me out. It’s the biggest fundraiser we’ve ever had. And it’s all because of you. Thank you,” he said.
On Tuesday, Warren appeared in a press call with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez on the DNC’s new campaign to frame Donald Trump’s presidency as a failure.
“Since the moment he came gliding down that escalator in Trump Tower, Donald Trump has proven that he cares about one thing and one thing only: Donald Trump,” Warren said.
The moves show a continuation of a standard set during her own presidential campaign. Warren staffers in Iowa were known for being some of the hardest-working and most dedicated campaign workers in the crowded Democratic primary field.
While campaign staffers are known to frequent bars and cafes in the evening, one Iowa Warren volunteer told the Washington Post that Warren staffers usually skip the bar-hopping to be up early in the morning and make phone calls.
The campaign’s legendary “selfie” lines with — which, despite the name, produced photos of Warren and a supporter taken by a campaign staffer rather than a self-administered one — ran after her events like a well-oiled machine, with staff members dedicated to managing the crowd passing down bags and phones to each other like an assembly line. It was the only logical way to keep the line moving and keep the commitment to feasibly allow any event attendee who wanted a photo with Warren to get one.
The Massachusetts senator ended her presidential campaign in early March after Super Tuesday when it was clear that she did not have the nationwide support to win the Democratic presidential nomination.
Biden has already committed to picking a woman as his vice president, but in the wake of nationwide unrest sparked by police-involved killings of black people across the country, many Democrats are calling on him to choose a woman of color — a black woman, in particular.
That’s a qualification that Warren, a 70-year-old white woman who has apologized for labeling herself as Native American in previous jobs, cannot fulfill no matter how hard she works to make the ticket.
Asked in a Democratic National Committee press call on Tuesday whether Biden should pick a woman of color to be his running mate, Warren did not address race.
“Every woman being considered for vice president is extremely qualified and would be an asset for Vice President Biden both in his campaign and in the White House,” she said.
Biden has said that he wants a running mate who agrees with him on general policy sensibilities — as he puts it, “simpatico,” would be able to be president on day one, and prefers someone who has already been vetted on the national stage.
While Warren easily ticks the latter two boxes, the negative for the former bankruptcy law professor is that she is far more left than Biden on many issues and had a long-standing beef with Biden over a 2005 law that made it harder to declare bankruptcy. But Warren has shifted her “Medicare for all” stance to being more in favor of a public option approach, and Biden has adopted some of Warren’s bankruptcy positions.
But the opinion of pollsters, perhaps, could carry some weight in her favor. Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said at the end of May that Warren is the potential pick most likely to help ensure Biden can win in November. “The biggest threat to Democrats in 2020 is the lack of support and disengagement of millennials and the fragmentation of non-Biden primary voters,” he said.
