U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she considers Richard Cordray one of the straightest shooters she's ever seen.

The liberal Democrat from Massachusetts also knows Cordray's personality well, poking fun at him as "the nerd we need" as Ohio's next governor.

The pair, pivotal in the creation and direction of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were united again Thursday in Columbus as Warren sought to rally votes for Cordray ahead of Tuesday's election.

Warren, the frequent foil of Republican President Donald Trump, who derisively calls her "Pocahontas," took jabs at Republican policies and agenda items as she talked up Cordray.

Warren and Cordray addressed a mostly young crowd of slightly more than 100 at TRISM, a bar and cafe across North High Street from Ohio State University.

She did not mention the name of Cordray's major-party opponent, but she did take one swipe at Mike DeWine, Ohio's Republican attorney general. Warren called out DeWine for his 2011 legal effort to have the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional and scuttle its guarantee of coverage for pre-existing health conditions, a provision that DeWine now says he has always supported.

"Health care is a basic right," Warren told the crowd.

She also never brought up Trump's name but blasted Republican moves to route tax cuts to the wealthy and stymie health-care reform while not acting on college affordability and disdaining the scientific evidence of climate change.

Warren was her most virulent in attacking corporate greed and Wall Street banks and institutions that fueled the economic recession of a decade ago — a recession that led to the creation of the consumer bureau.

She described receiving a call from then-President Barack Obama about piecing together the agency to level the playing field between consumers and corporate America.

"One of the smartest phone calls I ever made," Warren said, was to Cordray, whom Obama appointed as the bureau's first director. He served until stepping down late last year to run for governor.

Warren called Cordray "fearless and effective," saying that DeWine's predecessor as attorney general could not be corrupted as the federal consumer watchdog.

"What he cared about was what was right for the American families who had been cheated," she said.

"It's our time to fight back," she said, calling on the audience to vote in the election. Afterward, she and Cordray posed for selfies with a line of dozens of people, most of them Ohio State students.

Cordray has been courting young voters, calling them the "least-bigoted, least-prejudiced and least-stereotyping generation," one that will lead America to a more diverse, tolerant future. He continued his courting as he stood alongside Warren. calling on the mostly young audience to "go to the ballot box and make a change — make a change for Ohio."

"If we get high turnout among young voters, it is over," Cordray said of his toss-up race with DeWine. "We will win Ohio."

In a statement, DeWine campaign spokesman Joshua Eck said: "If Richard Cordray’s recipe for winning the election next week is to remind voters that he has ultra-liberal friends in D.C., then I like Mike DeWine’s odds."

Cordray and Warren also appeared at a rally at Ohio University in Athens on Thursday afternoon as surrogates continue to work Ohio for support for their candidates.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., presidential son Eric Trump and Vice President Mike Pence stumped on behalf of Republicans this week, and the president is scheduled to speak at a rally Monday in Cleveland.

Democrat Joe Biden, who was Obama's vice president, campaigned with Cordray on Monday and is to return Saturday. Singer John Legend, an Ohio native, also is to campaign this weekend on behalf of Cordray, as is a cadre of national labor leaders.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow