Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren reflected on her unsuccessful presidential campaign in her new book “Persist,” Insider reports.
Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor who helped the Obama administration create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before running for the Senate and later the White House, appeared to be an early favorite to win the Democratic nomination after launching her campaign in 2019.
But Warren failed to break through in early primaries and caucuses in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. By Super Tuesday, most of the other top-tier candidates had dropped out and Warren lost the primary in her own home state of Massachusetts, finishing third, as President Joe Biden surged to an insurmountable lead.
"In this moment, against this president, in this field of candidates, maybe I just wasn't good enough to reassure the voters, to bring along the doubters, to embolden the hopeful," Warren wrote, adding that the thought was “painful.”
Warren looks back:
Warren wrote that questions about the cost of her healthcare proposal hurt her campaign. She also noted that voters still had suspicions about female candidates like Hillary Clinton and former Massachusetts Senate candidate Martha Coakley.
"I had to run against the shadows of Martha and Hillary," she wrote.
Her campaign scrambled to issue dozens of policy proposals that were created after she launched her bid.
"It can be risky to learn on the run, particularly if some of that learning is happening in public," she wrote.
Warren on opponents:
Warren described Biden as a “steady, decent man,” praising him in the book after a contentious primary.
And after a minor feud with fellow progressive Bernie Sanders, Warren described the Vermont senator as "fearless and determined."
She wrote that she is not simply looking back on the past and intends to use her power as a sitting senator to continue to push her ideas.
"This book is about the fight that lies ahead," she wrote.
