BloombergBusinessweek July 29, 2019
forspeed-walkingthroughthehallsoftheSenatewhilerefusing
eventoacknowledgethereportersrushingalongsideherand
pepperingherwithquestions.BesidesMitchMcConnell,there
wasnomoredisciplinedsenator.
Aftertheelection,thatstopped.Shebroadenedherissue
portfolio,discardedthechillyhallwaydemeanor,andreached
outtojournalists.Thegamehadchanged,therewasa new
systemtomaster,andWarrenperceived,rightly,thatgetting
aheadina presidentialracewouldentaila differentapproach.
Today,incontrastwiththeotherfront-runners,shemakes
herselfavailabletothepressafternearlyeverycampaignevent.
It’sanevolutionsheseemstoenjoy,notleastbecausehernew-
foundstatusgivesherinfluenceovera broaderrangeofissues
thaneverbefore.“Asthemegaphonegrew,”sheexplained,
“Iwasabletopullmoreofthosepiecesin.”
AndwhileWarrendisappointedSchwabbypassingon
Davos,thewealthtaxheinspiredhasgivenherlicense,she
believes,tocontinuepursuingwhatFranklinRooseveltcalled
“bold,persistentexperimentation.”Historically,Democrats’
loftyaspirationsoftencrashedontherockyshoalsofpublic
financing.ButnoonecanquestionhowWarrenwillpayfor
herpoliciesif—andit’sa bigif—herferventwishtoshaketril-
lionsfromthepocketsoftherichcomestrue.
“Wouldn’tit benicetohaveuniversalchildcare?”sheasked.
“Thequestionis always,‘Howareyougonnapayforthat?’We
neversoundcredibleasDemocratsonthat,andit shrinksup
ourambitions.Soourambitionskeepnarrowing.”Sheadopted
a pleadinglook.“‘Well,canwehavejusta littlebitofchildcare?
Howabouta tinybit?Couldwegivea littlehelponstudent
loans?’” She shook her head. “Let me make this pitch: Who’s
gonna show up to reduce student loan debt by 2%? I’m serious!
Who’s gonna show up on our side to fight for that?”
For now, Warren has rebounded from early struggles like the
DNA flap. “She took the full punch,” says an adviser, “and sur-
vived.” That’s let her populist message shape the race.
Trump, preoccupied with stoking racial and cultural divi-
sions, hasn’t seemed to notice, yet. But some in his circle
have long worried he’s vulnerable to a message like Warren’s.
“Trump’s populism in the campaign had two components,”
Steve Bannon, his former chief strategist, told me two years
ago, when he was still in the White House. “There’s the immi-
gration and religion stuff, which we’re delivering on big time.
And there’s the economic populism, which I’m pushing on. But
you’ve got to have both. If we don’t deliver on it, we’re leaving
it there for Warren and Sanders to pick up.”
Warren’s outspoken criticism of Wall Street excess hasn’t
waned. She still takes down targets such as Tim Sloan, the Wells
Fargo & Co. chief executive officer, who resigned in March after
months of her withering attacks. (“His hands are too dirty from
overseeing years of scams and scandals,” she tweeted.) But she’s
also spent considerable energy distinguishing herself from
Sanders by declaring herself a capitalist—not a socialist—who
simply wants the system to work for everyone.
That assurance has won the grudging respect of some former
adversaries. “The country is hungry for serious policy proposals
to address income inequality,” says Lee Sachs, counselor to
Treasury Secretary Geithner during the financial crisis and a
co-founder of Gallatin Point Capital, a private investment firm.
Whether or not Warren can beat Trump, her poll num-
bers and fundraising success have bolstered her viability with
Democrats. She has also resurrected her popularity with the
left. “Warren is back in the good graces of a lot of progressives,”
says Uygur, the Young Turks host. “Are some people still bitter
about 2016? Yes. Bernie has his die-hards. But Warren is con-
verting a lot of people on the strength of her ideas. She’s mak-
ing progressivism safe for the mainstream.”
It’s a cliché that every candidate senses an imminent burst
of momentum, Warren included. “This is what I’m beginning
to perceive,” she told me. “For many people, they may not
know the details of my plans, but they’re sure glad to know
that the plans are there—that somebody has worked through
this who they can trust, and who has their interests at heart,
and will be in that fight and win that fight.”
Yet if Warren wins the nomination, many Democrats, her
allies included, worry some of her plans could hurt her when
she comes under the full force of Republican opposition.
While the wealth tax is broadly popular, other Warren-backed
plans such as decriminalizing migrant border crossings and
Medicare for All, are not. “Banning private insurance is a
problem,” says Frank. This month, NPR found only 41% of vot-
ers support a Medicare plan that does away with most private
insurance, while a Hill-HarrisX poll found more Americans
favor criminal prosecution (41%) for illegal border crossings
than civil fines (32%).
Here’s what else the polls show: What Democrats want
most is simply to beat Trump—period. A June Gallup survey
showed that, by a wide margin, Democrats and Democratic-
leaning independents prize electability over issue stances,
race, and gender. In other words, voters are looking for a
nominee willing to hit back at a president who leaves no
doubt he’ll do whatever it takes to win.
Warren is happy to oblige. She was the first major candi-
date to call for Trump’s impeachment. “If he were anyone
other than the president of the United States,” she said in
May, “he would be in handcuffs and indicted.” A new CBS poll
shows that 56% of Democrats in battleground states believe
Warren would “fight for” them, more than any of her rivals.
The possibility that Democrats may choose ruthlessness in
a nominee above all else could put Warren in a strange posi-
tion, since it would mean primary voters will have picked the
professor-turned-senator less for her intellectual skills than her
pugilistic ones. That would turn the rationale for her candi-
dacy on its head. All those minutely detailed plans to tax the
rich and provide Medicare and cut college tuition—the foun-
dation of Warren’s campaign—might not be why they vote for
her at all. If she defeats Trump on those terms, the most radi-
cal Democratic agenda since Roosevelt could end up being ush-
ered into the White House almost as an afterthought.
And how would Warren feel? “I’d be totally fine with that,”
she says. <BW>41