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Join NowRun Warren Run news, Dec. 18
It’s been an incredible few days for Run Warren Run — less than two weeks in and we’re already seeing powerful momentum.
Java Joe’s coffeehouse was packed for our kick-off event in Des Moines last night. The atmosphere was electric, the speakers inspiring, and the 100 Iowans who showed up were ready to get to work organizing to encourage Elizabeth Warren to run for President. The president of the Iowa Senate, Pam Jochum, attended and spoke, calling Senator Warren “brilliant” and “courageous,” and calling on to run.
A quick view from WSJ’s Peter Nicholas:
And that’s just one of many developments since we last emailed! We also:
- Have been joined by Democracy for America in the Run Warren Run effort with 87 percent of their members voting to sign on; DFA has made a commitment to invest at least $250,000 in the campaign.
- Shot past 100,000 signatures on our petition calling on Senator Warren to run (we’re actually now past 126,000, and still climbing).
- Ran a full-page ad in the Des Moines Register, timed with yesterday’s event.
- Continued to see tremendous press coverage, from David Brooks’ Times piece headlined “Warren Can Win,” to John Cassidy noting in the New Yorker that, “in Democratic circles, the terms of the debate have changed. Increasingly, the question is: Why isn’t Elizabeth Warren running for President?, to Joshua Green’s Boston Globe column arguing that if Warren runs, her positions will “instantly … establish the terms of debate” in the race for the nomination.
- Now have empirical evidence (thanks Google!) that all this is working.
More coverage:
IOWA KICK-OFF
“An Iowa State student said she was holding down two jobs and working 45 hours a week to pay for school. She said she is carrying a 12% interest rate on her student loan.
Ms. Warren, she believes, would fight to curb student debt.
‘Please run for president, Elizabeth,’ she said.
Standing in the back of the room, Beverly Swecker said she had never before attended a political rally. She was there with her husband, a farmer.
Why the plunge into politics now?
‘I like her commitment to the common person,’ Mrs. Swecker said. ‘That’s what we need more of in this country right now.'”“Iowa Senate President Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, told the audience that she thinks Warren is brilliant and courageous and she hopes she gets into the race.“
“‘Elizabeth Warren has been fighting tirelessly against the Wall Street lobbyists, against the special interests,’ Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, told more than 75 people at a downtown coffee shop. ‘This is our moment to stand up and fight for her.'”
“The effort to draft Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren into the 2016 presidential race officially kicked off Wednesday evening in a Des Moines, Iowa coffee shop, and the campaign is at least a quarter-million dollars richer than it was just a few hours earlier.”
“‘Our effort here is to convince her and show her her that there’s a robust movement of people all across Iowa and all across the country that want her to take her fight to the presidential race,’ says Ilya Sheyman with MoveOn.org.”
“‘I think we’re seeing an even bigger moment right now where her brand of leadership, her history of fighting for working families, of standing up to Wall Street — this really is Elizabeth Warren’s moment,’ Kaplan says.”
WARREN COULD SWING TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP DEBATE
“But Warren’s status as the emerging leader of the progressive wing of the party could complicate the Obama administration’s attempt to rally support from enough Democrats to get the deal completed.”
DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA MEMBERS SAY ‘RUN WARREN RUN’
“The effort to draft Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren into the 2016 presidential race received a major boost Wednesday evening, as the Howard Dean-founded group Democracy for America formally joined MoveOn.org’s “Run Warren Run” campaign and announced it would invest $250,000 in the effort.”
“‘After the clear mandate we’ve received from our members, Democracy for America is all-in on drafting Senator Warren and joining the “Run Warren Run” campaign,’ said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America. ‘The battle against income inequality is a defining issue of the 2016 race. Sen. Warren is Democrats’ most powerful voice in the fight against income inequality, capable of rallying our country to take aggressive action to protect struggling working families, hold powerful special interests accountable, and end the wealthy’s grip on government.'”
“DFA’s money in the ‘Run Warren Run’ campaign will contribute to hiring staff and renting office space in early caucus and primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire. It will also go toward early ads and videos.”
WALL STREET LOBBYISTS ROLLING BACK EXPECTATIONS B/C OF WARREN
“The White House was frustrated with Warren, Pelosi et al. last week as it was trying to get this negotiated package through, but they did President Obama a favor. When Wall Street comes asking for more next year, stuff that Obama’s not so willing to give away, congressional Democrats will have the organization ready to sustain his vetoes.”
“One senior financial industry executive said the dust-up over the funding bill has forced the industry to recalibrate its lobbying priorities for the coming year. Given Warren’s megaphone, the executive said, getting through the next Congress without new restrictions on large banks would constitute a win.”
COLUMNISTS WEIGH IN
“Cruz and DeMint can claim no allies within what remains of moderate Republican ranks. Warren’s war on Wall Street, by contrast, has enlisted colleagues on the right flank of the Democratic Party. … The critiques and policies that Warren advances resonate with a far wider segment of the public, and more particularly the potential Democratic electorate, than those equating her with Cruz would have us believe.”
“Today, even for those of us who disagree with Warren fundamentally, it seems clear that she does have a significant and growing chance of being nominated.”
“There’s no doubt who is conveying the most consistent message and generating the most enthusiasm among liberal activists: it’s Warren, with her populist crusade against Wall Street and moneyed interests. … The larger question can’t be dismissed, and that question is no longer: Is Elizabeth Warren running for President? In Democratic circles, the terms of the debate have changed. Increasingly, the question is: Why isn’t Elizabeth Warren running for President?”
“Today, the senators most effective at influencing the national debate are not Old Bulls like Ted Kennedy but younger figures like Cruz and Warren whose ability to communicate clear, powerful ideas resonates with the public. … Were she to run, however, Warren’s effect on the Democratic primaries would probably mirror the effect she had on the spending bill: Her positions would instantly become, to liberal voters, the benchmark for what constitutes acceptable Democratic policy.”