Presumptively, Elizabeth Warren’s full-time job is to represent the people of Massachusetts in the United States Senate — these are the duties she was elected to do. She collects nearly $200,000 a year salary, with benefits, to do this duty.
But behind the scenes, Warren has a new job — she’s positioned herself as the right-hand woman of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
And insiders say that she’s the one influencing many of his election campaign’s decisions.
Warren’s sudden grip on power inside Biden’s campaign may come as a bit of a surprise to outsiders. Biden accused Warren last year of holding an “angry, unyielding viewpoint.” She embraced that label and slammed Biden as “naive” for thinking he could work with Republicans as president. She warned Democrats against picking a “Washington insider” and pointedly refused to endorse Biden until weeks after exiting the race.
Now, those bitter primary clashes are a distant memory.
Warren, a Massachusetts senator and leading progressive, has become an unlikely but powerful adviser to Biden. They talk every few days, according to aides to both politicians who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely describe their relationship. Those forums have provided opportunities for Warren to make a case for far-left policy issues to Biden, who ran a more centrist primary campaign.
It seems to be working.
Biden has adopted Warren-endorsed plans on personal bankruptcy, expanding Social Security benefits, and canceling student-loan debt for millions of Americans. She also helped devise important portions of his post-pandemic economic recovery proposals.
Warren, meanwhile, is lending Biden her progressive credentials and frequently hosts campaign events for him, including one recent fundraiser that brought in $6 million. Only former President Barack Obama secured a greater haul.
Vanquished presidential hopefuls are often called on to rally around the nominee, especially if they want to become vice president, a role Warren has expressed interest in. But the relationship between Warren and Biden is notable given that they were never particularly close before. It also illustrates a more ambitious side of Warren, whose presidential campaign was built around economic populism that championed everyday Americans over the rich with the slogan “Dream Big. Fight Hard.”
If Warren isn’t chosen as Biden’s running mate, she’s likely trying to position herself to take on the role of treasury secretary or lead the Federal Reserve, where chair Jerome Powell’s term ends in 2022. That would ensure Warren continues to be a powerful force inside a Biden administration.
Warren displayed adaptability with other rivals during the primary, incorporating into her campaign key parts of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s climate plan, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s family-leave proposal and California Sen. Kamala Harris’ efforts to promote abortion rights after all had left the presidential race. She also built a close friendship with former Obama administration official Julián Castro, who later campaigned around the country on her behalf.
They weren’t all feel-good moments, however. Warren feuded with former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and her scalding attack on Mike Bloomberg during the Las Vegas debate was the beginning of the end for the former New York mayor’s once-promising White House bid.
Indeed, it was a perceived hard edge that made Warren a star on the far-left long before she ran for president. Ironically, a clash with then-Sen. Biden during a 2005 congressional hearing over a bankruptcy law was the first time many Americans laid eyes on Warren, who was teaching law at Harvard University at the time. It ended with him conceding, “You’re a very good teacher, professor.”
Warren later conceived of a watchdog group that became the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and, while its creation was still being debated in Congress in 2010, suggested that a watered-down version was unacceptable. Warren said then that she’d rather have “no agency at all and plenty of blood and teeth left on the floor.” After the agency was created, Warren’s polarizing nature came through when the Obama administration passed her over to become its first full-time director, fearing a Senate fight.
“This is not someone who’s willing to be at all flexible and compromise on anything,” said Colin Reed, a veteran of Brown’s 2012 campaign. He said that now Warren has “been helpful to a guy who, in a prior life, she had been pretty disdainful of” in Biden.
2016 FLASHBACK: “Unfit to serve: The shocking truth about Elizabeth Warren”
The Associated Press contributed to this article