Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign manager, Roger Lau, let the world’s worst kept secret slip in an online memo Monday.
Warren isn’t trying to win the 2020 Democratic presidential primary fair and square. At this point, that’s impossible.
Instead, she’s intending to steal it from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-V.T., critics say.
According to Lau, the Warren campaign’s plan for Super Tuesday is to see the field “winnowed down” to a few viable candidates — but with none of them breaking from the pack and commanding a lead — a move likely to rein in Sanders’s dominance among Democrats.
Warren hopes to muddle the field and prevent Sanders (or any other candidate) from capturing the Democratic nomination. Warren plans to use a brokered Democratic National Convention to essentially steal the nomination from the highest vote-getter.
It has reportedly been her plan for months — but now her campaign is openly embracing the idea heading into Super Tuesday.
NEW: In memo, Elizabeth Warren campaign manager @RogerLau basically admits the Warren candidacy is now a convention effort.
“no candidate will likely have a path to the majority of delegates”
“Milwaukee is the final play.”
“ultimately prevail at the national convention” pic.twitter.com/UDscXO7VYF
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) March 1, 2020
Lau wrote in a memo posted on Medium:
We believe that Super Tuesday will greatly winnow this field and it will become clear that only a few candidates will have a viable path to the Democratic nomination — and Elizabeth Warren will be one of them.
Our internal projections continue to show Elizabeth winning delegates in nearly every state in play on Super Tuesday, and in a strong position to earn a sizable delegate haul coming out of the night.
But as the dust settles after March 3, the reality of this race will be clear: no candidate will likely have a path to the majority of delegates needed to win an outright claim to the Democratic nomination.
Super Tuesday is the first test in March to amass delegates, but a week later we will be competing in six states, and a week after that another four that represent over 500 delegates up for grabs. By the time all of California’s votes from mail-in ballots are counted, likely in mid-March, we will still only be halfway to the overall number of pledged delegates up for grabs.
From there we will be competing in contests in the rest of March: Georgia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico, and early April: Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Wyoming, and Wisconsin. All of our 400 Super Tuesday organizing staffers will be re-deployed to states voting in March or April.
After Wisconsin nearly one-third of the pledged delegates will still be waiting to be elected, and there will be a three-week gap between electing delegates for the first time since voting began. In the road to the nomination, the Wisconsin primary is halftime, and the convention in Milwaukee is the final play.
Our grassroots campaign is built to compete in every state and territory and ultimately prevail at the national convention in Milwaukee.
Critics were quick to respond, saying the memo “borders on delusion.”
“Warren is on her way to getting wiped out again on Super Tuesday, perhaps leaving her below the threshold for delegates in nearly every state but her own. Even in the best-case scenarios, she’s not going to arrive at the convention with enough delegates to demand others back her,” RedState wrote.
“But even if this is her plan, how much of an outsized ego must one have to share this with the public? This is like an NFL team down 30 points in the 4th quarter trash-talking during the two-minute warning.”