Working Families Party Endorses Elizabeth Warren

[brooklynite]

New York Times

The Working Families Party, the labor-aligned progressive group whose electoral influence has grown since the 2016 election, has endorsed Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for the Democratic presidential nomination, a boon to her candidacy as she attempts to position herself as the main challenger to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

The party endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont during the last presidential cycle, at which time he described Working Families as “the closest thing” to “my vision of democratic socialism.” The group’s endorsement of Ms. Warren on Monday, one of the few by an influential progressive organization this early in the primary, is sure to turn heads among left-leaning Democrats who are desperate to defeat the current front-runner, Mr. Biden, in a primary election where their party’s ideological future is at stake.

“If our focus is on victory, we can’t be delusional about it,” said Maurice Mitchell, the Working Families Party’s national director. “You don’t defeat the moderate wing of Democrats through thought pieces or pithy tweets, you defeat their politics through organizing.”

Mr. Mitchell brushed off the possibility that the group’s endorsement would be seen as a sign of a splintering of the Democratic left. The vote among “tens of thousands” of party members resulted in a commanding majority for Ms. Warren, a party spokesman said; she received more than 60 percent of the votes on the first ballot.

[George II]

1. The Working Families Party seems to be all over the place these days - they endorse one person....

...in a primary then go after him/her during the general election. Wish I'd documented some of them. They also endorse candidates in primaries and general elections who run against Democrats.

I wonder if this is connected to Warren's endorsement of WFP candidates (running against Democrats, by the way) in Philadelphia?

This is a big blow to Sanders, who seemed a shoo-in for their endorsement.

[Otto Lidenbrock]

2. Bernie fans raging in the twitter comments

[Gothmog]

6. Yep

[Otto Lidenbrock]

7. Some of them think the endorsement Bernie got in 2016 is rigged now she has it

[peggysue2]

3. Hummm. Just gives more credence to . . .

an earlier prediction: the final head-to-head will be between Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.

[zentrum]

4. Good on them.

[LincolnRossiter]

5. If my choice is between Warren and Sanders, I don't know how that's much of a choice.

From a progressive standpoint, Warren has all of his assets and almost none of his liabilities. Easy call.

[Gothmog]

8. Sanders campaign wracked by dissension

From the daughter of one of DU's posters

The endorsement of Warren by this group has cause some concern

Link to tweet

Some of Bernie Sanders’ fiercest supporters are sounding the alarm that the campaign is bogged down by disorganization, personality clashes, and poor communication between state operations and national headquarters.

After a pair of setbacks this week — the acrimonious shakeup of his staff in New Hampshire on Sunday and loss of the Working Families Party's endorsement to Elizabeth Warren a day later — Sanders’ allies and former aides are worried that recent disappointments are not one-off stumbles but rather emblematic of larger problems in his bid for the White House. The concerns are particularly acute in New Hampshire.

“Seeing the campaign not be able to outshine Warren with WFP progressives doesn’t have me questioning WFP’s process,” said Rafael Shimunov, a former national creative director for WFP and 2016 Sanders volunteer. “It has me questioning where the Bernie campaign could have done better, because I want to make sure the strongest candidate unmasks Biden and unseats Trump.”

The worries come as the campaign enters a critical, more urgent phase. After Labor Day, more voters typically tune into the election and begin to make up their minds. Expectations for Sanders are sky-high, especially in New Hampshire, where he defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 22 percentage points.