An outside group that is supporting a would-be presidential run for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, is launching a three-month push in the hopes of getting the liberal firebrand to enter the 2016 race.
The “Time for Warren” campaign, part of the “Ready for Warren” group, is trying to get mobilize supporters to write the senator personal letters trying to convince her to run and wants supporters to “make a lot of noise” in early presidential states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina ahead of President’s Day, Feb. 16.
“We only have three months to convince her to run,” Kate Albright-Hanna, the group’s deputy campaign manager, told MSNBC. “We know that the odds go down greatly if she hasn’t made up her mind by then.”
For her part, Mrs. Warren — who rose to fame as an outspoken critic of big banks in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse — has said she isn’t planning to run for president in 2016.
But it hasn’t stopped such groups on the left for clamoring for her to enter as an alternative to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is seen as more friendly to Wall Street and who is seen as the odds-on favorite for the Democratic nomination if she enters the race.
Ms. Warren helped set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, part of the Obama administration’s response to the financial crisis. After being passed over to lead the bureau, she defeated former GOP Sen. Scott Brown in 2012 to win her current job in the Senate and was a popular campaigner for Democratic candidates during this year’s elections.
Senate Democrats even created a new leadership position for Ms. Warren, where she will help craft the party’s message going forward in the wake of its losses in the 2014 midterms.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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