Two Reasons Hillary Clinton May Not Want Elizabeth Warren as Her Running Mate
Warren's history with Clinton and her donors is complicated.
— -- Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren are set to hit the campaign trail as a team in Ohio next week, amidst speculation that the Massachusetts senator is on Clinton’s short-list of vice presidential contenders under consideration.
The principle reason behind the speculation surrounding a potential Clinton-Warren ticket is the potential for Warren to draw in disenchanted Sanders supporters with her message of Wall Street reform and economic equality. Warren has also proved eager and effective as an attack dog on Clinton’s behalf, aggressively going after Trump on social media and on the stump since endorsing Clinton.
But while the Democratic firebrand seems like an exciting choice to some segments of Clinton’s base, the presumptive nominee stands to lose a deep-pocketed constituency if Warren is her pick: Wall Street.
Wall Street donors have already provided millions in support to her candidacy and Clinton risks losing that lifeline of donations if she were to choose Warren.
“If Clinton picked Warren, her whole base on Wall Street would leave her,” a top Democratic donor told POLITICO. “They would literally just say, ‘We have no qualms with you moving left, we understand all the things you’ve had to do because of Bernie Sanders, but if you are going there with Warren, we just can’t trust you, you’ve killed it.’”
But it’s not just Wall Street that may hurt Warren’s chance of actually getting the job -- it’s also her relationship with the nominee.
The open secret is that Clinton and Warren have had a frosty relationship in the past.
Warren was the only female senator not to endorse Clinton during her heated primary battle with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, skipping an all-woman senator fundraiser held for Clinton in November.
Even if Warren’s silence in the primary was not a denial of Clinton, her criticism of Clinton in a 2003 book sent a clearer message. In the book, Warren accused Clinton of flipping her position on an overhaul of bankruptcy laws because of connections to banking industry.
“Big banks were now part of Senator Clinton’s constituency,” Warren wrote at the time. “She wanted their support, and they wanted hers -— including a vote in favor of 'that awful bill.'”
Still, Warren’s neutrality in the primary may have been forgiven with her full-throated endorsement of Clinton just after she achieved the delegate majority and became the party’s presumptive nominee.
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