Nevertheless, Elizabeth Warren Is Persisting in the Polls
After five months of campaigning in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Elizabeth Warren—the first of the many Democrats to declare her candidacy—is experiencing a “bump” in the polls. In new numbers from the oft-cited Quinnipiac University, Warren has leapt to third place behind Bernie Sanders and the believed front-runner, Joe Biden. The same poll found that 63% of Democrats have a favorable opinion of her. And, The New York Times notes, crowds at her events are exceeding her campaign’s expectations.
Not bad for a candidate who was written off as “unlikable” as soon as she announced, believed doomed by the micro-scandal of overemphasizing her fractional Native American heritage. Now the political media is singing Warren’s praises: “Is Elizabeth Warren a Serious Contender After All?” New York magazine asked on Tuesday, the same day The New York Times, reporting from Iowa, headlined a piece: “Elizabeth Warren Gains Ground in 2020 Field, One Plan at a Time.”
Sen. Warren has national name recognition as an anti–Wall Street warrior and a person unafraid of standing up to both Trump and Mitch McConnell, who famously scolded her for “persisting” on the Senate floor. But Warren’s new momentum also feels like a triumph for the way she is shifting the political conversation from trending hashtags to real issues. Under a celebrity president more interested in crushing Diet Cokes, refreshing Twitter, binging Fox News, and firing members of his administration, Warren has made big, bold, substantive policy plans feel downright cool.
She has rolled them out, one by one, for seemingly everything: There’s a proposed tax hike on the uber-wealthy (those making $50 million or more), which would, in part, fund a sweeping student debt forgiveness plan. Don’t forget about her affordable childcare plan, the plan to pass federal laws to protect Roe v. Wade, and even a strategy to fix comedian Ashley Nicole Black’s love life, after a request on Twitter. Never accuse Warren of failing to engage with voters!
“Now is the time that Democrats had better be walking the walk, not just talking the talk,” Warren said at a recent rally in Newton, Iowa.
As New York noted in its examination of Warren’s relative rise (alas, she still trails Biden by double digits), she is hardly the first presidential candidate to introduce comprehensive plans. John Kerry had plans; John Edwards had plans. Of course, Hillary Clinton had plans, too—plenty of plans she often referred to as being spelled out in great detail on her website. Candidates’ plans—and their implied, dreaded sense of policy wonkiness—haven’t exactly been sexy sources of charisma or media buzz. But they’ve also, largely, been forgettable. Warren’s proposals feel different, perhaps because they are so sweeping, so thoughtful, and so ambitious. Perhaps because they actually offer solutions to the very real drains on voters and the economy—like massive student debt and soaring childcare costs. Or it could be that after two years of Trump, a man who can hardly spell his tweets, people are starved for substance. These days, there is something distinctly likable (note to Politico!) about an intelligent, capable candidate—yes, even a “wonky” woman.
The senator is leaning into the narrative. Even the T-shirts and tote bags in her campaign’s online shop are stamped—in all caps, no less—with the go-to slogan: “Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that.”
Warren’s policy proposals not only break through the media noise, making news with every rollout, but they are setting a new standard for what constitutes political currency, as her opponents work to keep up. (See: Kamala Harris unveiling new plans on equal pay and reproductive rights; Cory Booker’s federal gun–licensing crackdown; Beto O‘Rourke’s climate plan.) And while questions will continue to swirl about her “electability”—never mind that she’s leading Trump in Rasmussen and Fox News polls—Warren may be achieving a feat previously thought to be improbable: surmounting the negative narratives that initially dogged her. She is no longer just Trump’s Twitter sparring partner or the subject of his “Pocahontas” slurs. She’s the woman with the plan.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
