Elizabeth Warren's Senate colleagues have been talking her up as a potential Vice Presidential pick for Hillary Clinton. | Getty Senate Democrats tout Warren for VP A growing number of the Massachusetts senator's colleagues are openly backing her for the ticket.

A growing number of Senate Democrats are openly backing Elizabeth Warren to join Hillary Clinton’s ticket, seeing her as a unity pick for Democrats after a bruising presidential primary between the party’s presumptive nominee and Bernie Sanders.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the sole Senate Democrat to endorse Sanders, argued that choosing Warren for the vice presidential slot would help bring supporters of the Vermont senator behind Clinton’s campaign. Sanders’ political base is the same grass-roots coalition that has made Warren a hero of the left.


“She’d be a terrific vice president,” Merkley said Thursday. “She'd be a great vice president and would be terrific in terms of having a spokesperson for the very powerful ideas that have mobilized the grass roots.”

Recently, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has been privately boosting Warren, even going as far as to research Massachusetts law to see how long her Senate seat would turn to GOP control if she did ascend to the vice presidency. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker would pick an interim replacement.

Though Reid has some “concern” about losing the Massachusetts Senate seat for a couple of months, the retiring Nevada Democrat believes adding Warren to the presidential ticket would help Democrats gain more Senate seats overall, a source close to Reid said Thursday.

Reid said the choice was up to Clinton, but nevertheless had warm words for Warren.

“Hillary Clinton has not only Elizabeth Warren to choose from, but a lot of very good women,” Reid said Thursday. “I have such admiration for Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren. It’s hard for me to convey that to you.”

Added Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, Warren’s home-state colleague: “She would be an excellent pick. She’s smart, she’s tough, and she ... would help to add a magical quality to the ticket.”

Still, Warren for VP is not a unanimous view in the Senate Democratic caucus. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said that while Warren is a "good friend," a more centrist choice would help rally moderates.

"[Virginia Sen.] Tim Kaine would be my choice. Tim Kaine would be a better fit for where we are today to bring moderates and independents on board," Manchin said.

Clinton herself showered praise on Warren Thursday, telling POLITICO that she has "the highest regard" for the Massachusetts senator and calling her "an incredible public servant, eminently qualified for any role."

Warren has increasingly taken on an attack -dog role in the campaign, and she will formally endorse Clinton Thursday night in an MSNBC interview.

The Massachusetts senator, who was first elected in 2012 after creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the Obama administration, has incessantly needled Donald Trump on Twitter.

This week in particular, Warren has stepped up her attacks against the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and has seemed, at times, to be auditioning for the VP role. She took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to chastise Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Republicans for blocking judicial nominees.

Later Thursday, Warren will crank up her anti-Trump fusillade another level. In a speech to the American Constitution Society, she plans to tee off on Trump’s recent attacks against a federal judge in Indiana who is overseeing a case accusing Trump University of fraud. She'll call Trump a “loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud,” according to prepared remarks.

Other Democrats question whether Warren is prepared to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said this week that Warren lacks foreign policy experience and is “not in any way, shape, or form ready to be commander in chief.”

Some Senate Democrats batted away the notion that Warren lacks the credentials.

“She’d be a great pick,” Michigan Sen. Gary Peters said. “The key thing is that Secretary Clinton just has to pick someone who is qualified to be a vice president. She certainly would be.”

Kaine, another person frequently mentioned for Clinton's VP short list, said “it would be smart to consider somebody as talented as Elizabeth.”

Warren’s office declined to comment on other senators’ comments.

It's unclear, of course, what Clinton thinks of Warren as a potential No. 2.

“I particularly don’t see it happening,” one Democratic senator said. “I don’t know if they have that kind of relationship.”

With a slate of potential vice presidential picks in the Senate Democratic Caucus — such as Kaine, and Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Cory Booker of New Jersey — many of their co-workers aren’t choosing sides.

“I have so many colleagues that would be terrific. Asking me to pick between them would be asking me to pick between my children,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) when asked about Warren. “I think there’s probably half a dozen that are really great. She’s certainly on that list.”

