Sen. Elizabeth Warren set a new standard Monday for 2020 Democratic campaigns, vowing to forgo private events with wealthy donors and promising equal access to every supporter.
Ms. Warren had previously led the pack of presidential candidates in vowing to refuse contributions from lobbyists and corporate political action committees, while also promising to disavow super PACs that spend on her behalf.
Some of her competitors followed her on that move, though it remains to be seen whether they will do so on this latest pledge to forgo big-dollar fundraising altogether.
Ms. Warren made her promise in an online pledge, saying Democrats’ nominee to take on President Trump must be able to deny spending time chasing after wealthy donors’ money.
“So I’ve made a decision: My presidential primary campaign will be run on the principle of equal access for anybody who joins it,” Ms. Warren said. “That means no fancy receptions or big-money fundraisers only with people who can write the big checks.”
The move was aimed at liberal activists who have been sounding the alarm about what they call the corrosive nature of wealthy donors in politics, and who have been pushing for a candidate to emerge with as few ties as possible.
Steven Billet, director of the Masters in Legislative Affairs at the Graduate School of Political Management at the George Washington University, called the decision a “calculated risk” for Ms. Warren.
“But I believe it is a place where she has to be,” Mr. Billet said. “I am not sure that she really has much choice. If you look at where she is ideologically, where she is with her reform orientation, I don’t think Elizabeth Warren has too many places she can go otherwise.”
Ms. Warren said the decision will free up time to focus on building a grass-roots organization that can win a general election race against Mr. Trump, who started raising money for his re-election from the start of his administration.
Sarah Bryner, director of research at OpenSecrets.org, said the risk for Ms. Warren is that the lion’s share of political contributions are of more than $200 and are often made at high-dollar fundraisers, dinners or cocktail receptions with donors.
“It is more of a sacrifice than some of the other pledges she has made,” Ms. Bryner said.
During her Senate re-election last year Ms. Warren raised $35 million — with roughly 31 percent of her total haul coming from donors that ponied up at least $200, and 1 percent coming from PAC donations.
Running a presidential campaign, particularly in 2020 when big primaries such as California and Texas are near the start of the season, may put pressure on campaigns to find ready access to money.
Yet Ms. Bryner said Ms. Warren is better positioned than many of her rivals to take this stand because she has two things going for her: strong nationwide name-identification and an established grass-roots fundraising network that she can rely on.
“I would say it is very rare for a candidate to make most of their money from small donors, but she can do it,” Ms. Bryner said.
Tracking Ms. Warren’s fealty to her pledge could be difficult because there is no way to track whether donations made to a candidate are made at random or are made during the kinds of big-dollar private events, meetings, or calls that Ms. Warren has sworn off.
“We don’t know how much of this money could be from a normal person who sends in a check for $200 and that is pooled in with the people who gave $2,700 at a fundraiser,” said Brendan Quinn of the Center for Responsive Politics.
Mr. Quinn said Ms. Warren could benefit by generating an uptick in small-dollar donations from people eager to reward her for the stance.
“It definitely seems like a winner with the grass-roots,” he said.
Liberal activists heralded the news.
“This is awesome,” Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, gushed on Twitter. “I hope others running for President follow your leadership.”
Ms. Rojas also added that Ms. Warren should resist pressure from “the establishment” to limit her pledge to the Democratic primary and reverse herself to compete with Mr. Trump’s money should she be the party’s candidate in the general election.
Some, though, called the move a stunt to mask fundraising woes for Ms. Warren, whose camp has been tight-lipped since sharing that she had raised about $300,000 the day she formed an exploratory committee.
By contrast, Sen. Bernard Sanders pulled in nearly $6 million over the first 24 hours of his campaign.
Samantha Cotten, spokeswoman for the conservative America Rising PAC, noted that Ms. Warren previously rubbed elbows with wealthy donors at exclusive events on Martha’s Vineyard and broke pledges to forgo contributions from federal lobbyists.
Ms. Warren followed up her announcement Monday with a fundraising email, telling supporters that the “biggest risk in this election is failing to empower the millions of people who feel the squeeze of an economy rigged against them and the deep frustration of a failing political system that produced Donald Trump in the first place.”
“So let’s change it,” she said. “Make a donation of any amount to power this grass-roots movement today — and know that no matter what you’re able to contribute, you’ll be on equal footing with every single other donor to this campaign.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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