Allow the headline to explain: “Elizabeth Warren Would Be the Most Liberal Democratic Nominee Since 1972.”
FiveThirtyEight attempted to quantify Warren’s ideology in the context of past Democratic presidential nominees. Measuring an individual’s liberalism by scores based on congressional voting record, fundraising sources and public statements on the issues, the website found that only George McGovern, a South Dakota senator and 1972 Democratic presdiential nominee, could really touch Warren’s levels of progressivism.
Of all nominees since 1972, only McGovern had a more liberal voting record than Warren, only then-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) lurched further to the left on public issues statements, and no one has come close to tapping into the liberal donor base like her.
It’s fresh in everyone’s memories that President George W. Bush was elected to a second term in 2004. As a refresher, here’s how things worked out for McGovern in ’72.
The measurements are imperfect; for instance, the score for public issues statements relies on quotations compiled by On The Issues, which hasn’t updated Warren’s section on education since October 2013. (In case you missed it, she’s been pretty loud about that whole thing of late.) But we still come away getting the gist.
It’s been reported that the crowd at lefty gathering Netroots Nation was fired up about the prospects of a Warren 2016 candidacy. She’d already be off to a good start with this kickin’ theme song.
