Things were gloomy inside Elizabeth Warren’s Illinois campaign headquarters the day after Super Tuesday, where it had become clear the Massachusetts senator’s presidential bid was coming to an end. Staff in Chicago “floated around like ghosts” and tried to figure out what the roughly 40 people showing up for that night’s phone bank should tell voters, organizer Cat Valdez recalled.
Another staffer came up with an idea: They would make calls for Marie Newman, a progressive trying to unseat Chicago-area Rep. Dan Lipinski, a staunch abortion opponent and one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress. By the end of the night the Warren team had made about 4,000 calls, some of them through tears.
“We all had this frenetic energy of `We have to do something,´” Valdez said. “It was something that was so comforting.”
Warren volunteers aren’t the only ones looking for a bright spot for the women’s movement and turning their eyes to Newman. For many women’s groups and female voters, her rematch with Lipinski is no longer just a chance to oust an incumbent they oppose but has become a moment to prove their 2018 surge still has power. “The stakes in this race couldn’t be clearer,” said Mairead Lynn, who has been on the ground in Illinois for Emily’s List, which supports female candidates and abortion rights and is backing Newman. “Since 2016, women have stood up and fought back against extreme anti-women politicians and that’s exactly what’s going to happen” in Illinois’ 3rd district.
Women’s groups have reason to feel deflated. Following several years of historic gains for women – including a record six women running for president – Warren was the last of the major female candidates to quit the race when she dropped out the day after the Chicago phone bank. It’s now a contest between two 70-something white men, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Sanders, the more progressive of the two, has slipped behind.
Meanwhile, progressive candidate Jessica Cisneros of Texas, a 26-year-old immigration attorney who was trying to unseat conservative Democratic US Rep. Henry Cuellar, lost her primary race. So did Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, who lost the Democratic primary for Senate in Texas to M.J. Hegar, the establishment-backed candidate who will take on incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn.