Ready for Warren? Run, Liz, Run? Run, Warren, Run? Draft Warren?

Progressive activists haven’t agreed on what to call the movement urging Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president, but they largely concur on this: With every recent anti-establishment move, the Massachusetts Democrat grows more attractive as a 2016 candidate, both in her own right and as a progressive foil for Hillary Clinton.


Such sentiments were on vivid display this week at RootsCamp, a gathering of some 2,000 progressive activists held in Washington, D.C. The event was held as Warren and others on the left have been denouncing the “cromnibus” spending bill winding its way through Congress over provisions they say are too friendly to Wall Street.

One panel at the conference, for instance, was called #HillaryProblems, and it delved into the disconnect between the Democratic establishment and the grass roots. Another was devoted to the “Draft Warren” movement, and it included members of groups such as MoveOn.org, which has pledged to spend at least $1 million to nudge the senator into the race, something she has said she won’t do.

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Interviews with more than a dozen attendees, along with comments from panelists, suggest that Clinton — who many on the left view as too hawkish and soft on Wall Street — is still struggling to generate enthusiasm among progressives, even as she’s all but certain to announce a 2016 bid within a few months. The lack of excitement is especially palpable among younger liberals, the set that helped power Barack Obama to the Democratic nod over Clinton in 2008.

Warren, on the other hand, has seen her liberal stock rise even higher in recent days. Her fury over the “cromnibus” bill has further inspired her supporters, as has her loud opposition to Antonio Weiss, a presidential nominee for a Treasury Department post who has ties to Wall Street. On issues such as income inequality, student loan reform and more, progressives interviewed felt Warren could better channel their frustrations than Clinton. And they see her presence in a primary as a guarantee that Clinton would have to move further left and talk more about progressive issues.

“This is Elizabeth Warren’s moment,” said Ben Wikler, MoveOn’s Washington director, during the “Draft Warren” panel. “[We] can see [that] this week when the bill that was about to sail through Congress became a national fight because Elizabeth Warren raised the alarm.”

Clinton has not commented on the $1.1 trillion spending bill, which Warren claims will undo reforms made under the Dodd-Frank law. The former secretary of state’s silence has not gone unnoticed among the crowd at the conference.

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“I’d love to see [Clinton] match [Warren’s] talking points in terms of the economy, just reforming Wall Street,” said Nick Moe, a political and environmental activist from Alaska. “She’s been absolutely silent as the Dodd-Frank legislation is being rolled back. Where was she?”

A representative for Clinton didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. But Clinton, who is the overwhelming Democratic favorite for 2016, has repeatedly stressed her support for student loan reform and slammed economic inequality in a series of speeches over the past year. At the same time, her missteps, such as describing how she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, were “dead broke” upon leaving the White House, and details about her $250,000-plus speaking fees, have hurt her.

She is expected to appear with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday at an event held at the billionaire’s Bloomberg Philanthropies in New York.

As Warren railed against the massive spending bill, more than 300 former Obama campaign staffers released an open letter urging her to run for president. Meanwhile, MoveOn.org — which was previously most prominent during the debates over the Iraq War — reemerged to promote a Warren presidential bid. The group hosted one of at least two pro-Warren booths on Saturday and is planning a Des Moines kickoff next week, along with staff hires in Iowa, as part of its broader investment. The group also plans to organize in New Hampshire.

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“Warren has been such a focal point, a leader in Congress,” said Erica Sagrans, the campaign manager of the super PAC Ready for Warren, which is urging the senator to run. “A lot of big things shifted the possibilities [this week], making it more likely she’ll run.”

Ready for Warren’s booth featured a cardboard cutout of Warren fashioned as Katniss Everdeen, the main character in “The Hunger Games,” the dystopian books and films. (Sagrans said big banks were the enemy in that scenario, not Clinton.) The booth also offered bumper stickers, posters and postcards in support of a Warren presidential bid.

Not everyone at the conference thought Warren could actually win the presidency. During the Draft Warren panel, for instance, one attendee voiced skepticism about her ultimate victory as part of a pitch about party unity.

So far, among Democrats who have expressed openness to running in 2016, there doesn’t appear to be a serious challenge to Clinton. Former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia has launched an exploratory committee, while outgoing Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is mulling a run as well. But attendees said they want Warren to run because even if she doesn’t win the Democratic nomination, she would push important issues to the forefront in a way more moderate candidates wouldn’t. They pointed to issues including protecting Social Security, reforming the student loan program and reeling in Wall Street.

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“It makes me a little discouraged,” said Aliya Wishner, 23, who works for the Sierra Club in Indiana, of the prospect of an uncontested Democratic primary. “When we’re electing someone to run the free world, we need to have a conversation. … Hillary’s a woman; that’s great, but that [tells us] nothing about how she’d run our country.”

Some of Warren’s more die-hard fans wouldn’t even entertain the idea that she could lose.

When Ruth Moreno, a 21-year-old student at Florida International University, expressed enthusiasm for Warren but doubted she could win in a general election, her friend Vanessa Rolon, 26, shushed her.

The conference draws a progressive crowd that breaks with the staunchly pro-Clinton views held by most leaders of the Democratic Party, including many prominent alumni of the Obama campaign. Still, it appeared to be a more buttoned-up gathering than the freewheeling liberal confab Netroots Nation, a blogger-centric event held over the summer.

Saturday’s event included clusters of campaign operatives who were relatively careful in their language; some partially obscured their “Run, Liz, Run” shirts with blazers, and others voiced undiluted enthusiasm about a Clinton bid.

But the broad sentiment was similar to that found at Netroots: if the election is between Clinton and a Republican, they’ll go with Clinton, whom they respect. But they want to see her have to fight for the Democratic nomination.

“I do like Hillary Clinton,” said Courage Kimber, a political consultant and organizer. But, she added, “People are fatigued already.”

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