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Warren Faces Three Uneasy Choices as Sources Say She Could Soon Exit the Race

The Massachusetts senator's decision will have a big impact on the election.

Update: Elizabeth Warren will reportedly suspend her presidential campaign today, Thursday, March 5.

Super Tuesday was not a good one for Senator Elizabeth Warren, following a worrying trend for her campaign, which has failed to deliver a finish above third place. Perhaps most demoralizing of all, she finished behind both Biden and Sanders in her home state of Massachusetts. The question now has become will she stay in, and if so, for how long? And to what end?

Her decision, whatever it ends up being, is set to have a huge impact on not only the primary but the general election in November. With a Trump administration steadily stripping away LGBTQ rights, the possibility of four more years is widely feared within the community.

Some voters hoping to see a progressive in the White House have been questioning if she should stay in, with plenty of Sanders supporters pressing her to drop out and endorse him even before the polls opened in the Super Tuesday states following the moderate wing of the party unifying around Biden.

Scott Eisen/Getty Images

CAMBRIDGE, MA - MARCH 03: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) leaves the voting booth at the Graham & Parks School during the Primary Election on March 3, 2020 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1,357 Democratic delegates are at stake as voters cast their ballots in 14 states and American Samoa on what is known as Super Tuesday. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

What some Sanders supporters appear not to realize is that a significant portion of her voters are not likely to go to him if she is no longer a choice, despite their having more in common ideologically than she and Biden. While a Morning Consult poll, conducted before Klobuchar and Buttigieg dropped out and endorsed Biden, found Sanders was the second choice of the majority of her supporters at 40%, another 28% said they were backing either Biden, Buttigieg, or Klobuchar.

Over the weekend, the Warren campaign released a memo outlining its plan going forward after a disappointing showing in the first four states. It highlighted increased donations, which have led to increased ad spending Team Warren hoped would get her back on track.

But most telling was the following:

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.

Her campaign admitting the only hope moving forward was a brokered convention was no small development, not least of all because that situation could likely aid Trump's reelection efforts. A Democratic Party falling prey to infighting and convention maneuvering for superdelegates would play into his strategy, as he is already pushing the narrative that the nomination is being stolen away from Sanders to upset his supporters, in hopes they stay home or cast a protest ballot if he isn't the eventual nominee.

According to The Washington Post, which spoke with sources close to talks on the condition of anonymity, Sanders surrogates have been reaching out to members of the Warren camp to try to unite the progressive wing of the party by getting her to drop out and endorse him, with "the expectation that Warren is likely to leave the presidential campaign soon."

Scott Olson/Getty Images

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - MARCH 03: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks to supporters during a rally at Eastern Market as Super Tuesday results continue to come in on March 03, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan. Voters in 14 states and American Samoa go to the polls today. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Unsurprisingly, Team Biden has also reportedly spoken to her campaign about throwing her support behind the former vice president should she decide to exit the race.

If she chooses not to drop out, she could enter the convention with enough delegates to have influence, but likely not enough to win the nomination. But after her disappointing Super Tuesday results, her best bet to retain her influence and high favorability rating might be to get out of the race and back one of the two seemingly inevitable eventual nominees.

While it may seem most obvious that she would back Sanders, that remains an open question. She did not support him in 2016, instead endorsing Hillary Clinton once she secured enough delegates to become the presumptive nominee, which upset many of Warren's progressive fans. Since then, the relationship between the two has only gotten frostier, with Warren accusing Sanders of saying a woman couldn't beat Trump, Sanders denying it, and Warren saying she thought he called her a liar.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 25: Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) (L) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) interact during a break at the Democratic presidential primary debate at the Charleston Gaillard Center on February 25, 2020 in Charleston, South Carolina. Seven candidates qualified for the debate, hosted by CBS News and Congressional Black Caucus Institute, ahead of South Carolina’s primary in four days. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The trolling from Sanders supporters, including snake emojis showing up in the comments and replies to her social media postings, didn't help either. Sanders told Rachel Maddow this week that he was "disgusted" by that behavior. He has also said he would love to speak with Warren about a role in his administration when asked if he would consider her as a running mate, after first saying it was "too early to talk about that."

There seems to be no safe place for Warren to go at this point. She can stay in and risk upsetting everyone rooting against a brokered convention; drop out and endorse Sanders, risking upsetting the Democratic establishment; or drop out and endorse Biden, which risks furthering alienating her from some progressive voters. Either way, it's an unenviable situation to be in.

It might not be for the reason she had hoped at the outset of this campaign, but one thing is certain: Right now, all eyes are on Warren.

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