Why Warren Lost
In this 2020 primary, there were a handful of really strong, truly progressive candidates. Specifically, I am talking about Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, and Bernie Sanders. These were candidates with a progressive background, and whom had really powerful unique ideas to prop up their campaigns. For Yang it was Universal Basic Income (UBI), for Warren it was her plan to break up large tech companies among other things, and for Bernie Sanders it was literally every single one of his positions.
Two of the three aforementioned candidates went down pretty easily. I think it should be easy to see that the reason for this is the third candidate: Bernie Sanders. Sanders already solidified the loyalty of progressives during the 2016 election, and there wasn’t much anyone who waved the “progressive” flag could do to stop that. Not even Yang’s promise of a UBI of 1000/month could cause enough people to leave the Bernie Camp for the Andrew one, and not even Warren’s legal expertise as well as her admittedly detailed “plans” could cause voters to switch up on the Bern.
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It is not to be underestimated how strong Bernie Sanders is with anyone more than a little left of center. Even centrists are impressed by how his voting record and public opinions have not changed much over the years. He is every bit as progressive now as he was 50 years ago, and that is something no other candidate, maybe in all of recent history, can say.
However, I didn’t want to write this about Bernie. This piece was written so that I could try to dispel the notion that Warren lost to sexism. Nothing could be further from the truth. She lost because she ran in the same election, with similar principals, as a candidate with a huge army of die-hard supporters who couldn’t even change their mind for $1,000 a month.
So, she was doomed from the start. Ultimately, Biden might take this primary because, despite of my social bubble of college educated 20-something, it seems likely the majority of Democrats simply want a dead-center candidate who doesn’t offer ambitious promises of Medicare for All and market disruptions. The ones that do want these things already picked their candidate way back in 2016.
So if we want to be real here, she lost because of Bernie Sanders. Just like Buttigieg and Klobuchar lost because of Biden. Their messages were too similar, and in the end they lost to the candidate with the most experience and brand recognition.
To say Warren lost because of sexism is a lot like saying Yang lost because of racism. Maybe, but Hell no.
