2020 White House hopeful and Sen. Elizabeth Warren spent the weekend attracting the Democratic Party’s establishment donors just less than two years after alleging the 2016 primary was rigged in Hillary Clinton’s favor.
Speaking at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in San Francisco, the Massachusetts Democrat courted powerful party insiders. In the fall of 2017, she criticized these same insiders for unfairly influencing the party’s last presidential primary to ensure Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would lose to the former secretary of state and first lady.
After 17 months of declining to comment on the 2016 matter, Warren answered “yes” without hesitation when CNN’s Jake Tapper asked her in the fall of 2017 whether she believed the Democratic primary was “rigged” to crown Clinton with the nomination.
“What we’ve got to do as Democrats now is we’ve got to hold this party accountable,” Warren said.
Despite the charge, Warren was wildly popular at the gathering of influential Democrats, receiving a standing ovation from more than 150 of the party’s top donors before even starting her speech, according to The Atlantic.
During her speech at the meeting Thursday, which several 2020 Democratic rivals attended, Warren reminded attendees of her efforts to help elect Democrats down the ballot, illustrating her willingness to be a team player despite being further to the left than many in the party find comfortable.
“I raised or gave more than $11 million helping get Democrats elected up and down the ballot around the country,” Warren told the audience, and “sent contributions to all 50 state parties, the national committees, and the redistricting fight.”
Warren has been a top-tier candidate ever since entering the crowded Democratic presidential field. After two strong debate performances this summer in Detroit and Miami, Warren has held her momentum, with the latest poll showing the Massachusetts senator consistently in second or third place in the field along with Sanders, while Biden’s front-runner status is sinking.
A Monmouth University poll released Monday shows Biden’s lead in the race diminishing, dropping to third place with 19% support, and Warren and Sanders tied for first and second place, each with 20% support.
