Politico frames this as a surprise among Massachusetts Democrats. It isn’t to me, nor have I heard the conversations speculating that she would not run. I tend to assume that incumbents will seek re-election until I hear otherwise.
Please share widely!
@SenWarren
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May 8
The forced removal of long-time Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah is abhorrent and unacceptable. The Administration should make clear to the Israeli government that these evictions are illegal and must stop immediately.
Im still a fan of her policy chops, but her political acumen is terrible. Warren has been a fairly ineffective Senator who has now squandered her political capital on a failed presidential run, a failed vice presidential run, and a cabinet job that never materialized. None of her bills have become law and Bernie Sanders as the Budget Chair has far more sway over the Biden of agenda than she does. Alienating him and his supporters with a late in the race cheap shot has left her isolated from her natural allies. Her latest book sounds like another tone deaf campaign memoir that blames everyone but the candidate.
I’ve seen polls that show she’s toast against Baker and it’ll be close against Polito. Now fortunately for her the MA GOP likes to pick far right losers for their senate candidates and she’ll be running in a presidential year, but perhaps it’s time to ask if other younger candidates have the fire to do a job she clearly is bored with.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/article/elizabeth-warren-book-persist-campaign-memoir-2020.html
Bah humbug to you too!
It’s not like either of us ultimately voted for her in the primary. She released 87 plans by the time she was done, but not a single one focused on convincing voters she could beat Trump. If I could do over the primary, I’d vote for Biden. He was definitely the right candidate in the right place at the right time. It’s likely Harris, Abrams, or someone new is the 28’ nominee rather than Warren.
She needs to emulate Teddy’s successful transition from presidential also-ran to a senator who matters by passing historic legislation. That’s far more worthy of her time in the Senate than fighting the last battle.
She was my strong second choice and my wish for VP, and failing that Treasury Secretary. I have absolutely nothing against her and she was a rare incumbent I was enthusiastic about re-electing. I just preferred Biden for his experience in that particular race, but am also very attracted to candidates who clearly did their homework like she did. In races where there can only be one winner and we can only vote for one, that neither means all others are “losers” nor that we dislike those we did not vote for.
I suspect she will make the transition you refer to and she is nodding already in that direction, though by virtue of age alone she won’t have as much time as Kennedy did. I also don’t see her ever in direct competition with Baker since neither seems interested in the office the other holds. The tone of your above comment gave me flashbacks to your previously dumping on Markey in a similar vain, but he also has done just fine.
I voted for her in the primary. I agree with you that Elizabeth Warren will not be the 2028 nominee — that, in fact, is the point!
She is doing exactly what you suggest in your last paragraph. She is already doing so more effectively than Ted Kennedy ever did, because she is advancing our agenda using her impressively outsized personal and intellectual influence. Nobody ever accused Ted Kennedy of revolutionizing theoretical thinking about the influence of wealth concentration on the US economy — or on the far more prosaic and equally influential field of bankruptcy law and how it is used to destroy all but the wealthy and powerful.
The biggest risk for all of us is that the racist and Trumpist right will literally crush representative democracy in the US long before the 2028 elections. We desperately need elected officials who are effective at actually changing the culture of the federal government to prevail in the civil war that the GOP has launched.
Elizabeth Warren is a crucial field general in that war. She needs just enough political acumen to retain her current seat so that she can continue to lead, fight, and win the intellectual battles that we face.
Again with the ageism. Why? It’s hard to object to the racism of the GOP while calling for “younger” candidates who “have the fire …”.
You calling for “younger” candidates and explicitly asserting they will “have the fire” is no different from any Trumpist calling for whiter candidates and asserting that will “be more articulate”.
She will always be fighting an uphill battle as a woman and as a Senator willing to go up against the Big Money. The media is corporate and as such, not on her side. If she is “toast” against Baker, I see that as a failure of the state Democratic party as they continue to pitch themselves as Republican Lite on economic issues.
I think her biggest failure as a candidate in 2020 was not fully realizing her populist roots from her 2012 campaign and before as a consumer protection advocate. Our fight should always be framed as the little guy against the big guys rather than the Harvard professors making big government work with 87 different plans.
To be crystal clear, I support the Senator’s re-election, I am just disappointed by her lack of political self awareness in this latest book and the decline of influence she has seen. I think it is unlikely she faces serious Republican or intraparty opposition for that run, that does not mean she deserves freedom from scrutiny over her strategy.
I fear you are misreading the political tea leaves.
Elizabeth Warren is, by a very large number of sources, the single most influential thought leader of progressives. That leadership is why I have always argued that senior Senator from MA is the best position for her. I invite your attention to a representative piece from Politico (https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/elizabeth-warren-aides-biden-administration-475653) (emphasis mine):
Representative Katie Porter is a typical example of Elizabeth Warren’s outsized influence — Ms. Porter is a clear leader of the progressive agenda in Congress. She is a former student and protege of Elizabeth Warren.
Richard Cordray was just appointed COO of Federal Student Aid (https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-richard-cordray-chief-operating-officer-federal-student-aid). Mr. Cordray is, by all accounts, a close ally of Ms. Warren. His appointment is great news for every American suffering from the crushing burden of federal student debt.
Ms. Warren has already been in office more than two presidential terms. As Ted Kennedy showed us, the Senate provides a much more fertile environment for accomplishing major long-term change than any executive-branch position.
In my view, THIS is why I prefer that Ms. Warren stay right where she is. I haven’t read any stories of staff, students, or proteges of Bernie Sanders spreading throughout the federal government. Kamala Harris is getting lots of media face time — I see no evidence that she has been or will be nearly as influential as Elizabeth Warren.
Elizabeth Warren is single-handedly doing more to advance the progressive agenda in the here-and-now than any other political figure I can think of.
Katie Porter named her child after Elizabeth Warren……so yes, there is a lot of respect for her in progressive circles.
The “Harvard professor” image you mention was more of the Media portrayal. Maybe the “Has a Plan for That” overshadowed her populist roots, but in my view, I saw the media attack her aggressively when she was the front runner and I’m not limiting that to Fox News. Maybe Rachel Maddow was on her side, but that was about it. The big wigs in the party did not want her. Corporations did not want her. Heck, she dared to criticize the Clintons AND President Obama on their economic policy.
As I learned the morning after the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention in 2014 when the media proclaimed Martha Coakley as the front runner against Baker when she came in second at the convention and there was no mention of Don Berwick who virtually tied her in delegate votes…..big money, the media, and corporations pull a hell of a lot of weight….and they ain’t liberal on economic issues.
Look you make fair points, I just question the timing and content of the book. I also wish she could pass actual legislation, but I know Manchin and Mitch are preventing much of that agenda form being realized. She has a good bully pulpit and she should use it more effectively than she did in the campaign or than she has since the inauguration. I look at this phase of her career as the time to be bold within the Senate. Teddy passed far more legislation and he did so by making unlikely partnerships and coalitions.
We are on the same side, same page. The next 18 months might be the last time that progressive working class Democrats in congress to be bold, speak out, and get things done. More accurately, if they are not bold, stay quiet, and get nothing done, they will be gone or reduced to observers in 18 months.
I don’t see that happening unless Senator Warren is able to work behind closed doors with Cheney and Romney……but that might be the best option for all three involved.
Joe Kennedy primaried the wrong Senator.
Joe is a nice young man….but he’s drifted from the path of his Uncle Ted.
You really think he should have primaried Warren?