Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced at a Holyoke town hall meeting Saturday that, once the midterm elections are over, she will consider running for president in 2020.
Warren, who is currently running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, has been outspoken about her criticisms of President Donald Trump and his policies, denouncing his treatment of immigrants and other marginalized communities.
“It’s time for women to go to Washington and fix our broken government, and that includes a woman at the top,” Warren said at the town hall. “So here’s what I promise: After November 6, I will take a hard look at running for president.”
In her speech at the town hall, Warren advocated for women and working class families, emphasizing the need for a change in America.
“I came here tonight to make you a promise,” Warren said. “I’m just getting started.”
David Glick, professor of political science at Boston University, said he anticipates the midterms will affect candidates and nominees for 2020 by showing the Democratic party where voters stand on party-specific issues. This could affect Warren’s choices, he said, as it will show the political party which candidate will satisfy the hopes of the majority of Democratic voters.
“If the more progressive wing of the Democratic party does exceptionally well in the midterms,” Glick said, “that probably would suggest that candidates on the more sort of Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren-wing of the party might emerge as front runners, if that’s where the energy in the party is going forward.”
Glick also said most of the current Democratic leaders are fairly stable in their own elections, so election losses are not necessarily a concern.
“I don’t think it’s going to be one of those scenarios where half the potential candidates get down a notch by losing an election or something like that,” he said.
Allston resident Meghan Huber, 25, said she thought Warren was waiting to examine the state of the Senate before deciding whether to launch another campaign.
“I can’t see why else she would want to wait, other than maybe seeing what’s out there and seeing how bad it is,” Huber said, “and if it ends up being bad, she would maybe try and jump in.”
Bruce Schulman, a BU professor of history who teaches a course on media and politics in modern America, said he believes Warren has already made up her mind about running for president. Schulman said it is not a question of if she will run, but rather a question of when she will announce her candidacy.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the outcome of the midterms,” Schulman said. “I think she was signaling that she is going to run.”
Instead, Schulman said he thinks Warren is waiting to announce her presidential campaign out of respect for her constituents who have been campaigning for her re-election to the Senate and the other Congressional candidates.
“It makes it seem like she’s not taking the re-election campaign for senator seriously,” he said. “I don’t think that there’s anything … that would change her mind.”
Just as Schulman believes Warren has made up her mind about running for president, Tom Pickin, 30, of Brighton, said he thought the American public would not change its opinions about Warren because of anything that might happen in the midterms.
“I think her national opinion is pretty set,” Pickin said, “and I think the midterm elections aren’t really payed attention to that much.”
The midterms might not even impact Warren heavily, Shulman said. He mentioned that the midterms before the elections of former President Barack Obama and Trump did not indicate that either candidate would secure the presidency.
Even if the midterms go well for Warren, he said, that does not prevent another candidate from getting elected.
“Almost anybody who pretended to be an expert would have said you were crazy, and if you had said in 2014 after the midterms that Donald Trump was going to be the next president, the same is true,” Schulman said. “So, it is possible that there are candidates that no one is anticipating.”
Schulman also said if Warren runs and did secure the Democratic nomination for president, he did not think she would be able to defeat Trump.
“I think she could conceivably be the Democratic nominee,” he said, “but I don’t think she could beat Donald Trump.”
Hannah Schoenbaum and Zoe Allen contributed to the reporting of this story.
