Kimberley Strassel at the Wall Street Journal fills in some
of the details behind Richard Cordray’s run for Ohio Governor ("Biggest Loser: Elizabeth Warren"):
For a decade Ms. [Elizabeth] Warren, 69, has
been busy trying to remake Washington in her progressive image. Her role in
creating a new financial regulatory apparatus gave her outsize influence over
the bureaucracy. Her successful 2012 Senate bid gave her a megaphone to rail
against “billionaires, bigots and Wall Street bankers”—and Donald Trump. The left
begged her to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2016 and rebrand the Democratic
Party as a populist, progressive force. Ms. Warren demurred, leaving the field
to Bernie Sanders.
She instead carefully designed this
year’s midterms as her launchpad to the presidency. Ms. Warren seeded into key
races several handpicked progressive protégés, in particular Richard Cordray,
former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (who ran for Ohio
governor), and a former law student, Katie Porter (who ran in a California
House district). Ms. Warren geared up a shadow war room, built ties with some
150 campaigns, directed millions of fundraising dollars to select candidates,
and thereby earned chits. She dispersed staffers to early primary states and
crisscrossed the country herself. A week ago she was dominating Ohio headlines
at rallies for Mr. Cordray. If Mr. Trump was on the ballot nationally, Ms.
Warren was on it in the Buckeye State.
The lead-up to Tuesday had already
been brutal for her. Hoping to elbow her way back into the headlines after
Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Ms. Warren chose in mid-October to
release a five-minute video and piles of documentation aimed at proving she
really is at least 1/1,024th Native American. The ridicule was ruthless,
matched only by the anger Democrats directed at her for distracting from the
election.
But Tuesday compounded the
disaster. Ms. Porter—who campaigned in Orange County on single-payer health
care, expanded Social Security and debt-free college—flamed out to two-term
Rep. Mimi Walters. In Ohio, Mr. Cordray lost to Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Read the rest here.
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