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A4 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANuARY 11, 2019 OPINION editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager PRO-CON Is Warren a viable presidential candidate? Justin Wan/Sioux City Journal Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts speaks at a Saturday campaign event at Orpheum Theatre in Sioux City, Iowa. PRO: Warren definitely viable, CON: She stumbled in starting but many other Democrats are gate and may not recover hankering to take on Trump W ASHINGTON — While the she campaigns or speaks publicly. campaign for president seems to A result of her popularity is that Warren be endless, the recent and very was in the top 10 for fundraising in 2018, public entry of Massachusetts Sen. Eliza- despite not having a particularly competi- tive re-election. That suggests she has the beth Warren into the 2020 election marks basic campaign finance viability needed to a beginning. Democrats are likely to have a large compete. primary field in their effort to defeat All this adds up to make Warren a incumbent President Donald Trump and clearly viable, if we must use that term, Warren is the first, but certainly not the candidate for president. last, qualified and politically viable candi- Now, while Warren is the first viable date to run. candidate to enter the race, even though a Viability is a word that pun- few others missing some of those dits, strategists and activists use key criteria have already entered, to narrow down large fields of she will not be the last. Serious candidates. consideration will need to be given However, you may remember to other candidates as well. that Trump’s first campaign was, Assumed candidacies include almost universally, considered not former Vice President Joe Biden as viable, so you need to understand well as Sens. Bernie Sanders, Sher- rod Brown, Kamala Harris, Cory Don that viability is ultimately deter- Kusler mined by voters. Booker, Jeff Merkley, Amy Klobu- char and Kirsten Gillibrand. Several questions should be asked and answered when consid- There are many other well- ering viability. known Democrats considering as well, Is the candidate well-known? Is the including the popular Beto O’Rourke of candidate experienced working on specific Texas, who narrowly lost his initial try for issues crucial to voters? Will she or he be the U.S. Senate last year. able to raise the money needed to com- The list includes other elected offi- cials such as Colorado Gov. John Hicken- pete? Can they connect to primary voters looper and former New York City Mayor and to the wider general electorate? I’d say viability, while not dependent Michael Bloomberg. on satisfying all of these criteria, certainly Others expressing interest include for- mer Attorney General Eric Holder, entre- depends on satisfying most of them. preneur Andrew Yang and another dozen Warren is professionally accomplished as a law professor and scholar, experi- potential candidates. enced as an advocate for working-class While not delving into every candidate, Americans in her work on fairness in a few short examples of viable candidates banking, and has served with distinction would be Biden, who has already won as a United States senator. twice nationwide; Sanders, whose primary And she has become well-known challenge of Hillary Clinton was remark- ably strong and wide in its support; and through her outspoken advocacy, is Brown, who has won tough contests in beloved by primary voters in the progres- sive wing of the Democratic Party and is battleground Ohio as a progressive while even a frequent target of Trump’s ire and championing working-class issues includ- ing trade. ridicule. Interestingly, she is also a former The campaign for 2020 will be excit- ing and an important decision will need to Republican, adding to her potential cross- over general election appeal. be made. Voters are fortunate to have what Warren’s experience advocating for seems to be a strong, inspiring, diverse, consumer protections, especially in bank- progressive, and yes, viable field of can- didates to choose from and Warren defi- ing, allows her to deliver a genuine and nitely fits that bill. expert narrative on the damaging eco- nomic divide that voters everywhere feel Don Kusler is national director of and are yearning to solve and she deliv- Americans for Democratic Action, a pro- gressive advocacy organization. ers this message in an engaging way when D ALLAS — What if you entered a share — so she’s trying to prove she’s presidential race and no one really “one of us.” cared? When Democrats run in deep red states, they often appear in a political ad That was the ho-hum reaction to shooting a gun. It’s an effort to identify Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s with red-state voters. New Year’s Eve announcement that she Warren’s in a blue state, so the for- was forming a presidential exploratory mer Harvard professor decided to host committee. an Instagram Live chat drinking a bottle She’s the first Democrat to take the of beer. It was painful to watch. step and so the media widely covered it, People who have never handled a gun but she will have a lot of competition. Is look awkward — and staged — when she an odds-on favorite? Probably not. they try. That’s how Warren looked with First, politicians, like athletes in a her beer bottle, asking her off-camera long-distance race, can peak too soon husband if he wanted one. and find themselves fading as compet- itors pass them by. That may be Professor Warren may be a fre- quent beer drinker — her favor- one of Warren’s problems. ite is Michelob Ultra, which alone Four years ago she was the may cost her some votes — but darling of the Democratic Par- ty’s small but growing progres- Harvard professors would appear sive wing. Dissatisfied with Hil- more natural holding a glass of lary Clinton, progressives urged pinot noir. Warren to enter the 2016 presi- Progressives are drawn to dential race. Merrill Sanders because he seems gen- Matthews uine; Warren’s efforts to appear However, Senate Majority genuine only make her appear less Leader Harry Reid, a strong Clin- ton supporter, reportedly offered Warren so. a Senate leadership position if she’d stay Third, her claim to be part Native out of the race. Warren accepted, disap- American, which has been largely dis- pointing her supporters at the time. missed and widely ridiculed, may not be her only exaggeration. But Vermont senator and self-de- scribed democratic socialist Bernie For better or worse, every serious Sanders made no such promise. He chal- presidential candidate becomes the tar- lenged Clinton and championed a very get of opposition research, examining every detail of a candidate’s background. progressive message, drawing huge Warren was once a Republican. Will crowds of energized, young support- ers, and giving Clinton a real run for her researchers discover actions or state- ments that contradict her claims to money. progressivism? The result is Sanders became the de If she handles future revelations as facto head of the progressives and War- ren became yesterday’s news. Now she’s poorly as she has her Native American almost no one’s first choice. claim, she may be done for. Recent polls show Joe Biden, Beto Elizabeth Warren is a successful, O’Rourke and Sanders as the three intelligent woman who worked her way up from a lower-middle-class childhood. top Democratic presidential contend- ers. Economic forecaster and publisher She has a good narrative. Kiplinger puts Warren in eighth place. But presidential campaigns are about And a recent poll published by The Hill energizing voters and attracting hun- dreds of millions of dollars in campaign has her in low single digits. contributions. If a candidate can’t do In other words, she’s gone from top those things, then he or she needs to bow to flop — or close to it. The election is out early. two years off so Warren may be able to Warren has time to prove she can regain her mojo, but beer soirees and do both and take the lead. But for now dubious ancestry claims haven’t helped. she seems to be chasing the progressive Which brings us to the second point: movement rather than leading it. genuineness. Merrill Matthews is a resident Warren is considered a little cold and scholar with the Institute for Policy aloof — a criticism both she and Clinton Innovation.