CONCORD, N.H. — Progressive activists hoping to draft Sen. Elizabeth Warren into the 2016 presidential race will hold their first meeting in the key early-voting state of New Hampshire on Saturday.
Members of MoveOn.org and Democracy for America are starting their “Run, Warren, Run” New Hampshire effort with a meeting in Manchester. The groups hope to persuade the populist Massachusetts senator to seek the Democratic nomination in 2016, even though she has repeatedly said she is not running.
In an interview published Tuesday in Fortune, Warren answered a simple “no” when asked, “So, are you going to run for president?”
The architect of President Barack Obama’s consumer financial protection agency, Warren would be able to quickly raise millions from an enthusiastic following, many of whom are wary of the leading potential Democratic candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Saturday’s meeting comes a month after a similar gathering attracted about 75 people in Iowa, which traditionally holds the earliest presidential caucuses just before New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primaries.
MoveOn plans to spend $1 million on its Warren effort, and Democracy for America has pledged $250,000. The groups are seeking staffers in both states and are trying to build volunteer and donor support.
Such work also has been underway on behalf of Clinton in both states for at least a year, and Clinton herself has a strong network of New Hampshire support that she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have nurtured for more than two decades. Both Warren and Clinton campaigned for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire last fall.
A spokeswoman for Warren did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press
