Obviously no one is running on Barack Obama’s platform during this mid-year election lest they want to lose the race before they even begin to campaign, but that doesn’t mean that the Democrats are shying away from releasing the hounds on state contests. Instead of deploying the traditional White House emissaries, which should include Joe Biden if he has the intent of running in two years, the Dems are taking a more interesting approach.
It seems they’re releasing Cory Booker, the former New Jersey mayor who joined the Senate late last year and is popular with young women, minorities and people who know next to nothing about Cory Booker, and notorious affirmative action abuser Elizabeth Warren, who will drive her bumper-stickered Subaru straight into the heart of America for toss-up Senate races like that in Kentucky.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) have become the Democratic Party’s secret weapons in some of its toughest states this cycle.
They can rally key portions of the Democratic base — women, African American and young voters — and effectively deliver the populist, progressive message that resonates with blue-collar workers in the South. Outside of President Obama, Warren and Booker are two of the party’s biggest fundraising powerhouses, able to rake in hundreds of thousands in a single event.
“For Elizabeth Warren, obviously a natural place for her is to make a pitch to women voters, progressive women voters,” said Penny Lee, a former political adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “Cory Booker, as a former mayor, he can speak about urban issues and reforming schools, and talk to African American communities.
“You want to play into their strengths, maximize their energy and enthusiasm.”
It’s a risk, no doubt. Booker is closely tied into Barack Obama and supports some of the very issues that seem to create divisiveness within the Democratic party, though he hasn’t been in Congress long enough to have any official opinion. Elizabeth Warren runs to the left of most English professors, which means that unless she can somehow convince moderate Democrats that she’s not stabbing them in the back, legislatively speaking, especially when speaking to coal state Democrats, who, unlike Warren, view their state’s main source of jobs and income as somewhat important to their existence.