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RELEASE: ‘Run Warren Run’: MoveOn Members Overwhelmingly Vote to Encourage Elizabeth Warren to Run for President

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Video and website focus on Warren’s clarion call for all Americans to have a fighting chance; Iowa kick-off event planned for Tuesday

Launch comes after 81.3% choose to go forward in vote of MoveOn’s full grassroots membership

*** Watch the launch video here: http://rwr.io/video ***
*** Check out the campaign website here: RunWarrenRun.org ***

Today, MoveOn.org Political Action, one of the country’s most influential grassroots organizations with 8 million members, launched a major nationwide campaign — Run Warren Run — to convince Senator Elizabeth Warren to run for president, with more than 81.3 percent of votes cast in a nationwide membership vote supporting the effort.

Watch the launch video here: http://rwr.io/video
Check out the campaign website here: RunWarrenRun.com

A campaign website and launch video focused on the Massachusetts senator, who has become known as a tireless, passionate advocate for giving all Americans a fighting chance in an economy rigged in favor of big banks and corporate interests, went live on Wednesday following the member vote. MoveOn is planning for the campaign’s first event to take place in Des Moines, Iowa early next week.

The campaign will include:

  • offices and staff in early primary and caucus states like Iowa and New Hampshire,
  • the assembly of a national volunteer army ready to work for Senator Warren if she enters the race,
  • the recruitment of small-dollar donors who pledge their support,
  • and ads, videos, and cultural interventions that tell the story of how Senator Warren has stood up and fought for the middle class and her powerful vision for our country’s future.

“MoveOn members have spoken clearly, and we are today throwing our full weight behind this Run Warren Run campaign to show Senator Warren she has the support of millions of Americans across the country to run for the White House,” said Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action. “We are at a crucial time in our nation’s history, with income inequality higher than it’s been since the 1920s and with a playing field increasingly skewed in favor of Wall Street banks and corporate lobbyists. Senator Warren’s fearlessness in standing up to corporate interests and fighting for the middle class and working families is exactly what we need in the presidential race.”

MoveOn will invest at least $1 million in the first phase of the launch. Run Warren Run is the first presidential draft campaign the organization has run in its 16-year history.

“This Run Warren Run campaign will highlight the groundswell of grassroots support for Senator Warren to enter this presidential contest,” said Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn.org Civic Action. “Time and again, Senator Warren has stood up for working families and middle-class Americans who are struggling to get by in a game that’s been rigged by Wall Street banks and big corporations. We need her bold vision in this race. With this campaign, MoveOn members are ready to show Senator Warren that, if she runs for the Democratic nomination for President, she will have the eager support of millions of Americans.”

The campaign MoveOn has prepared will include a robust field program, with a national team-based organizing strategy inspired by President Obama’s powerhouse grassroots campaign. Additionally, the Run Warren Run campaign will hire staff in early caucus and primary states including Iowa and New Hampshire, and MoveOn members across the nation will engage in high-visibility social, cultural, and online actions, and partner with key organizations and constituencies to highlight the groundswell of support for Warren.

The campaign will work to demonstrate to Warren that her core message—an electrifying call to fix a rigged political and economic system that is failing America’s families—resonates among crucial early primary voters and caucus goers.

“This moment was made for Elizabeth Warren,” said Ben Wikler, Washington director of MoveOn. “The defining theme of 2016 is also the defining theme of Elizabeth Warren’s life: inequality and the crisis of the middle class. From creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to leading the charge against outrageous student debt, Senator Warren has shown by her actions that she’ll never stop fighting for an economy that serves regular Americans instead of Wall Street.”

MoveOn members have repeatedly stood alongside Senator Warren as she has fought for the middle class, from backing her proposed legislation to charge student loan borrowers the same low interest rates the government gives big banks to applauding her call for expanded Social Security benefits. When Warren ran for the Senate in 2012, MoveOn.org Political Action members bundled more than $1 million in small contributions to Warren’s campaign, and turned out nearly a thousand MoveOn members in Massachusetts to volunteer on her behalf.

In 2008, MoveOn members’ endorsement of then-Sen. Barack Obama just before Super Tuesday delivered a boost to his campaign for the White House. MoveOn.org Political Action represents the collective will of MoveOn’s more than 8 million members at the ballot box by helping to elect progressive candidates.