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Join NowMoveOn.org & Democracy for America Suspend—and Celebrate—the Run Warren Run campaign
Groups point to the presidential race’s focus on income inequality and populist progressives’ increasing power as key accomplishments.
Read More: Why We’re Suspending the “Run Warren Run” Campaign
Six months after launching a major campaign to encourage Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to run for president, the groups behind the Run Warren Run effort announced today that they will suspend their participation in the draft effort on Monday, June 8 after delivering a petition with 365,000 signatures asking Sen. Warren to run.
MoveOn.org Political Action and Democracy for America launched the Run Warren Run campaign in December 2014 with a commitment to invest at least $1.25 million after supermajorities of both groups’ members voted in support. Over the following six months, hundreds of thousands of Americans, the Boston Globe, the New York Working Families Party, prominent cultural figures, and elected officials and grassroots leaders in Iowa and New Hampshire joined the call for Sen. Warren to run. So too did dozens of nationally prominent progressive leaders including Van Jones, Larry Cohen, Zephyr Teachout, Annie Leonard, and Lawrence Lessig, who headlined a Run Warren Run event in New York in April.
On June 8, Run Warren Run supporters will deliver to Sen. Warren’s Washington, D.C., office a petition with more than 365,000 signatures asking Sen. Warren to enter the presidential race. The groups will then rest their case and suspend their draft effort, pivoting their focus to working alongside Sen. Warren and other progressive populists on issue fights like defeating Fast Track negotiating authority for the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
Since its launch, the Run Warren Run campaign has:
- Signed up more than 365,000 Americans who believe Sen. Warren’s vision and track record would make her a great candidate;
- Opened field offices in Iowa (Des Moines, Cedar Rapids) and New Hampshire (Manchester), hired field organizers in both states, andbuilt a network of local, grassroots leaders in these key early states committed to encouraging Sen. Warren to run;
- Recruited more than 60 state legislators and local party leaders from Iowa and New Hampshire to join the Run Warren Run effort;
- Held more than 400 events, including rallies, house parties, teach-ins, honk-and-waves, and other events in nearly every state;
- Been endorsed by dozens of prominent organizational leaders, elected officials, celebrities, and other progressives;
- Generated coverage in thousands of news stories elevating Sen. Warren’s voice and demonstrating a groundswell of grassroots support for her leadership—setting the stage for the presidential race and changing the dynamics of important debates in Washington.
“The Run Warren Run campaign has changed the conversation by showing that Americans are hungry for Elizabeth Warren’s agenda—an agenda that rejects the rigged status quo in Washington and puts working and middle-class Americans over corporate interests,” said Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action. “We’ve assembled a grassroots army and demonstrated the substantial support Sen. Warren could expect if she were to enter the race. Now it’s time to suspend our active draft efforts and pivot to standing alongside Sen. Warren on the big fights ahead, starting with stopping Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
“Even without her in the race, Elizabeth Warren and the Run Warren Run campaign she inspired have already transformed the 2016 presidential election by focusing every single Democratic candidate on combatting our country’s income inequality crisis,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America. “We still think there’s plenty of time for Sen. Warren to change her mind, but now that we’ve shown that she has the support she would need to mount a winning a campaign, we’re excited to take the grassroots juggernaut we’ve built with our members and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Warren in the battles ahead.”