Elizabeth Warren Describes Why She Didnt Run for White House in New Book

[question everything]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren opted not to run for president in 2016 in part because her husband warned her the race would be far more grueling than her 2012 Senate bid, she writes in a book scheduled for release next week. Ms. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, progressive favorite and possible contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, recounts asking her husband, Bruce Mann, if she should enter the presidential fray in her new book, “This Fight Is Our Fight.”

By early 2015, progressives in the Democratic Party were eager for an alternative to Hillary Clinton. Ms. Warren had become a heroine to that wing of the party through her work on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and her aggressive hearing-room challenges of banking regulators and financial executives.

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Her husband ultimately gave his blessing to a 2016 presidential bid, though Ms. Warren writes, “Talking with Bruce and asking the question out loud had settled it. I wanted to stay buckled down and keep doing my job—my Senate job—as completely and as effectively as I could.”

Ms. Warren’s book—in which she reveals for the first time she considered a White House run—combines biography and economic commentary. She argues that inadequate regulation of big banks and corporations has exacerbated income inequality and diminished the middle class.

Political biographies are often a prelude to a run for higher office—an opportunity for ambitious politicians to lay out a vision for the country. Mrs. Clinton published “Hard Choices” about 10 months before declaring herself a 2016 presidential candidate, while GOP presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina also published books before launching White House bids. Barack Obama published a memoir and a political tract before running for president in 2008. “Biographies are a tried and true way for politicians to tell their story, connect directly with supporters and expand their base,” said Michael Czin, a Democratic consultant. “Even if you take the actual book out of the equation, the tour and accompanying publicity is an important bully pulpit.”

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Though she is most critical of the conservative push for deregulation and limited government, Ms. Warren also at times criticizes fellow Democrats in the book—including former presidents Mr. Obama and Bill Clinton. She positions herself in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, a faction that routinely reproaches elements of the party deemed too close to big business.

For example, she criticizes Mr. Obama’s statement last year that “the system isn’t as rigged as you think.”

“No, President Obama, the system is as rigged as you think,” she writes in the book.

She also recounts that, anticipating Mrs. Clinton would win the 2016 election, she wrote a critical op-ed article for the New York Times in which she “pushed hard on President-elect Clinton, urging her to make our government work for the American people.”

Ms. Warren wrote that she was under a great deal of pressure to endorse a candidate in the 2016 Democratic primary race but backed Mrs. Clinton only after she had sewn up the nomination. Mrs. Clinton considered her for vice president. Though she stayed neutral in the primaries, Ms. Warren heaps praise on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic candidate whose message resonated strongly with many liberal voters. She describes him as “passionate” “smart” and “totally committed.” “I was reminded why we had been friends for so many years,” she wrote.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/elizabeth-warren-describes-why-she-didnt-run-for-white-house-in-new-book-1492104021