Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is “huddling with advisors” and “reassessing” her campaign Wednesday after suffering big losses on Super Tuesday — losses far worse than her campaign predicted.
The Associated Press reports that Warren “was speaking to staffers and assessing the path forward” and that her “run was in serious doubt after she finished a surprisingly weak third in Super Tuesday’s Democratic primary in her home state of Massachusetts.”
Worse still, Warren placed no better than fourth in most of the Super Tuesday states, leaving her with a gain of of only a few delegates, and a total of only 50 delegates, against former Vice President Joe Biden’s 453 and Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 382. At one point, Tuesday night, Warren was tied with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who snagged her first delegate from a primary in American Samoa.
Warren’s campaign has been on a downward trajectory since November, when she was unable to successfully argue that she would not, as president, be forced to raise taxes on the middle class to fund vast expansions of the Federal government, including a “Medicare for All” plan and a full bailout of student loan debt. She’s never recovered, and placed a disappointing third in Iowa, and fourth in New Hampshire — a state she was once slated to win.
Tuesday night, a “make or break” moment for the Massachusetts Senator, likely signaled the end of her campaign, even though she received a handful of last-minute endorsements from Democratic power-players like abortion rights group EMILY’s List, and from celebrities who tried pressing a “progressive” candidate who was focused on redistributing the income of millionaires — just not Hollywood millionaires.
“Three weeks ago, the campaign said it was ‘poised’ to finish in the top-two in eight of the 14 states that vote on Super Tuesday,” according to Politico. “She didn’t in any, including her home state of Massachusetts. (California votes are still being counted but she is currently running a distant-fourth).”
Tuesday night, at a campaign event in Detroit, Warren said she wasn’t giving up.
“You don’t get what you don’t fight for,” she told supporters. “It’s about the fight, but it’s also about the hope. It’s about what we will be able to do together. So that’s why I’m here.”
Warren’s campaign is still planning on holding several events in Michigan, Idaho, and Illinois, as well as a number of other states slated to vote in March, but her commitment to those rallies poses another problem: she’s running out of money.
“The campaign also has financial constraints that come with a unionized staff of over 1,000 people — the largest field operation in the race besides Mike Bloomberg’s — even after raising $29 million in February,” Politico added, noting that Warren did get a slight boost after she tangled with Bloomberg in a debate. “With a payroll at over $6 million per month, the campaign likely needs to keep at least several million dollars on hand to cover paychecks, benefits, and other assorted shutdown costs to avoid going into debt.”
She only has enough cash to purchase television advertising through March 10th, and the next primary debate won’t take place until March 15th.