MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Elizabeth Warren admitted to a lackluster performance during the New Hampshire primary debate.
Warren, who won a debate scholarship to college, acknowledged late Friday she didn’t live up to her “Dream Big, Fight Hard” 2020 Democratic presidential campaign slogan on stage. She needed a strong showing to kick-start her stalling White House bid.
“I just didn’t say enough, didn’t fight hard enough, didn’t tell you how bad I want this, and how good we can make it if we just come together,” the Massachusetts senator, 70, told MSNBC.
During the debate, the last before New Hampshire Democrats decide on Tuesday who they hope will become their party’s standard-bearer this fall, Warren spoke for almost 16 minutes. That ranked her fifth out of seven candidates. Warren had a full five minutes less speaking time than Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the most voluble candidate of the night. Unlike previous Democratic debates, Warren didn’t demand time or jump in unsolicited.
The former Harvard Law School professor and force behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was never going to be the focus of Friday’s event, given her flagging poll numbers. Yet her presidential ambitions would have been boosted by a viral moment.
Her standout exchange came in response to a question about Michael Bloomberg, 77, the billionaire former mayor of New York City and late-entrant into the Democratic race for the White House.
“I don’t think anyone ought to be able to buy their way into a nomination or to be president of the United States,” Warren said of Bloomberg, who has spent more than $300 million on advertising since announcing his candidacy last November.
Heading into the debate, Warren seemed to have a home-field advantage in New Hampshire as a public official from a neighboring state with a shared media market. But she’s been unable to reinvent the momentum she experienced over the summer before it was blunted about concerns regarding her “Medicare for all” plan.
Since then, polling suggests she’s lost support from more liberal Democrats to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78. She’s also ceded college-educated voters to former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 38.
