Longtime Democratic pollster: Warren ‘obvious solution’ for Biden’s VP pick

Stan Greenberg, who served as President Clinton’s lead pollster, called Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) the “obvious solution” to be presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, according to Politico.  

Greenberg, who also coined the term “Reagan Democrats” for socially conservative longtime Democratic voters who backed the Republican in 1980 or 1984, added that Warren would unify the party behind Biden and said he urged Hillary Clinton to add her to the ticket in 2016, the news outlet reported.

Much of the Democratic primary electorate “lean towards the Democrats, but Biden’s not getting their votes yet,” Greenberg told Politico. He also said that he has told the former vice president’s campaign that Warren’s emphasis on structural inequalities is vital to millennials, a group for whom Biden has been a hard sell.

“Above all else, [the Democratic Party] needs consolidation. That’s where the overwhelming percentage of votes are,” he said.

Greenberg made similar points in a presentation to the Biden campaign titled “The Obvious Solution,” according to Politico.

“The biggest threat to Democrats in 2020 is the lack of support and disengagement of millennials and the fragmentation of non-Biden primary voters,” he reportedly said in the presentation.

Biden has pledged to name a woman as his running mate, with top contenders rumored to include Warren, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.).

A recent Politico-Morning Consult poll indicated Warren would most boost Biden’s candidacy, with 26 percent saying having her on the ticket would make them more likely to vote for Biden, compared to 23 percent who said it would make them less likely. Warren had the most support among black and Hispanic voters and voters under 45.

Backers of Harris have argued that an African American woman as Biden’s running mate would motivate the Democratic base, but Greenberg said this was not borne out by their respective primary performances.

“If you look at the African American vote in the primaries, they weren’t supporting Harris,” he told Politico. “She never developed the base in the African American community against Biden.”