Sanders bid doing little to tamp down ‘Draft Warren’ fervor

Advocates of a presidential run by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are not being swayed by the entry of one of her liberal colleagues in the 2016 race.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced Wednesday evening he would be mounting a bid for the presidency. The liberal lawmaker, who caucuses with Democrats, plans to hammer his message of fighting economic inequality, support for the middle class, and the outsized power and influence wielded by the nation’s wealthiest citizens. In other words, a campaign message that would not sound particularly surprising coming from Warren.

{mosads}However, the entry of the liberal stalwart Sanders is doing nothing to tamp down the fervor of Warren’s strongest backers. While liberal groups praised him for launching a left-leaning bid, they are still waiting for Warren to jump into the ring as well. Warren, for months, has said she is not interested in running.

MoveOn, which has explicitly called for the Massachusetts Democrat to run, welcomed Sanders to the race, and praised his work on challenging Wall Street and boosting working Americans.

“We look forward to engaging in a conversation with him and all the candidates,” said MoveOn’s Anna Galland in a statement.

The group then went on to call on Warren to run for president too.

“We and our allies continue to call on Sen. Elizabeth Warren to also bring her tireless advocacy for middle-class and working Americans to the race,” said Galland. “Our country will be stronger if she runs.”

Democracy for America, another part of the Warren 2016 camp, said they were “excited to have progressive champion” Sanders in the race.

“Senator Sanders has a long history of fighting the wealthy and powerful interests that dominate the political process and his presence in the race continues to ensure that income inequality will be at the very center of the 2016 debate,” said Charles Chamberlain, the group’s executive director.

Despite that enthusiasm, the group said it is still waiting for Warren.

“We know that having her in the race would only increase the odds of having a Democratic nominee committed to the bold, populist progressive reforms our country desperately needs,” he said.

The Ready for Warren movement called Sanders’s candidacy a “promising first step” in ensuring a Democratic primary debate on the issues, but indicated it believed Warren had a better shot at actually winning the presidency.

‘We need Senator Elizabeth Warren in the race to make sure we have a Democratic nominee who will lead these fights all the way to the White House,” said Erica Sagrans, Ready for Warren’s campaign manager.

–This report was updated at 11:52 a.m.