Elizabeth Warren’s WH2020 annoucement is bad news for Bernie
They both appeal to similar segments of the Dems base
The big WH2020 news today is the announcement from Massachusetts Senator, Elizabeth Warren, that she’s putting her hat into the ring for the 2020 Democratic nomination
She’s declared that she’s establishing an exploratory committee — the legal precursor to a run. This comes as other candidates, including several of her fellow senators, were reported to be making made final preparations for their own announcements.
The news follows speculation that the 77 year old 2016 contender who gave Hillary a good run for her money in 2016, Bernie Sanders, is also just about ready to make a similar announcement. In the past few days followers of Bernie were urging him and Warren to come sort to some sort of agreement to stand on a joint ticket, presumably with the older man being at the head.
Both Sanders and Warren appeal very much to the progressive wing of the party and unless there is an agreement you could see them fighting for the same section of the market. By preempting him on New Year’s Eve she is making it much more difficult for the socialist from Vermont to enter the race.
I have long felt that supporters of Bernie have been over stating his position and misinterpreting two sets of data. Firstly at the last election Bernie gained greatly by being the main opponent of Hillary for the nomination. He was the stop Clinton candidate because here were few other serious contenders. Secondly Bernie backers have been putting a lot of hopes on early polling showing that their man is doing quite well. The only problem here is that, the Iowa caucuses are not for another 13 months, and polls this far out tend to be more are more bout name recognition than actual voting intention.