Campaigns like Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) are not only frustrated with the lack of communication with Nevada State Democratic Party officials, but the lack of assurance that early voters will have no problem casting a vote.
Just days ago the state party scrambled to remove the Iowa app vendor Shadow/Acronym in order to avoid a repeat of Iowa’s tech-troubled presidential nominating contest. Instead, the new early voting process will include early voters filling out paper ballots that will go to “process hubs” for scanning and proper storage ran by the state party.
Warren, who finished third in the Iowa caucuses and fourth in New Hampshire’s primary, is seeing her campaign momentum slip away, but still refuses to bow out of the race.
In order to stay in the game, Warren absolutely needs to throw a hail mary in Nevada.
Despite her campaign hiring 50 on the ground campaign staffers, and releasing memos that highlight her team “closing in on nearly a million contacts” with Nevada voters, Warren has a major problem with diversity.
And Nevada is one of the most diverse of the early voting states.
Warren’s biggest (and most recent slip up) came last week when more than half a dozen female minority staffers based in Nevada departed Warren’s team because of a campaign culture of racial hostility.
The Nevada campaign staffers reportedly complained they felt “tokenized by the campaign because of their race.” Not shocking, one staffer in particular went on the record stating she felt like they were “there to literally bring color into the space, but not the knowledge and voice that comes with it.” A female field organizer, Morgan Lewis, went on to tell Politico reporters there was something wrong with the [work] culture.
“I filed a complaint with HR, but the follow-up I received left me feeling though I needed to make myself smaller or change who I was to fit into the office culture,” Lewis said.
Fun fact, the Warren campaign does not dispute these women’s allegations, not a single one.
So this brings us to an important question: has Warren learned her lesson? Well, obviously not if less than 72 hours after the incident she had to publicly issue an apology to the six women of color who left her Nevada campaign office because they were marginalized and made out to be the token brown staffers.
What’s even more of a slap in the face to these minority females is that rather than take on full responsibility and accepting any wrongdoing of her own campaign, Warren blamed “systemic racism and the “long legacy” of racism in the country. Yes, I will give her credit because she told Chris Hayes from MSNBC that she takes responsibility for this, but that is only half a solution.
Let’s stop and contrast Warren’s campaign to Trump’s re-election campaign. 13 out of the 26 senior staffers on the Trump 2020 campaign team are women. Might I add, with zero complaints of a campaign culture of racial hostility.
The Trump re-election campaign, which has been in full swing since June of last year, has optimized the campaign’s outreach to the Latino community and suburban women by having women oversee the outreach themselves and act as surrogates on the ground in key battleground states.
As someone who has worked in the political and campaign realm, I can only imagine the heartache these female staffers felt as they were simply meeting a diversity quota. Not only were these staffers’ recommendations of Spanish events, literature, and staff hires not taken into account, they were put on a back burner with no intention of ever reviving.
Nevada has a 28 percent Hispanic population, making it the fifth-largest Hispanic population nationally.
Even more so, Warren would be surprised to learn little things about minority communities, like there is no word for “caucus” in Spanish, you would say “kao-koos,” and then explain the importance of this February date. Having worked in Nevada Republican politics, primarily the greater Las Vegas area, Hispanic outreach and a thorough understanding of the issues that matter most is critical for a victory in November. On presidential races gaining this knowledge comes from listening and empowering staffers on the ground like the ones Warren marginalized just this week.
Liberal media outlets seem to forget that Warren has a track record of amplifying her career by using “diversity” and “minority” when it positively benefits her public profile, yet fails to really implement any meaningful change for minorities.
Warren first gained notoriety when she had to publicly apologize and fess up to the fact that she exploited diversity recruitment for her career advancement. Despite being between .05 and 1.5 percent Native American, for almost a decade Warren self-reported as a minority to the Association of American Law Schools and got away with it, scotch free. Less than a decade ago, Warren had no issue accepting the status of the “first woman of color” while teaching at Harvard Law School.
Still, I have to say that Warren even threw me for a loop when she decided to take a DNA test to prove just how “Native American” she really is. Not only did this political stunt backfire (and quite beautifully might I add), but she faced even more scrutiny from tribal leaders who believe sovereignty and culture kinship are determining factors in Native citizenship, not just heritage.
Let’s call this STRIKE ONE.
Just a year ago Warren’s Spanish campaign website came under fire for including multiple grammar and syntax errors; errors that mimic using Google Translate. At one point, Warren’s Spanish website included informal “tu” and formal “usted,” which even beginners know is a big mistake since the appropriate use of formal Spanish is dependent on the context of who you are speaking to. Other parts of Warren’s website were simply not translated at all, such as the “Fact Squad” section.
Politico rated her Spanish website a mere C+. For one of Harvard’s best and brightest, I would say this is a failing grade for Latinos across the country.
Let’s call that STRIKE TWO, por favor.
However, Warren receives a free pass on this one because she’s a Democrat who gets to play by a different set of rules. Warrens says “systematic racism” is the reason why staffers departed, she apologized for using her “Native American heritage” to get ahead, and her website is being worked on — the excuses are endless.
Let me end on this note, Warren made a vow on a Medium post that if she gets elected she would be committed to diversity and inclusion by “appointing half her Cabinet positions to women and nonbinary individuals.” Yet, Warren has clearly failed to manage and diversify her campaign.
Her shortcomings will not go unnoticed by voters in this country. If she cannot get this right, how will she represent such a diverse nation?
The answer is she cannot.
Marissa Martínez is a GOP Contributor for The Hill, Fundraiser for Strategic Rush, and Republican Strategist with campaign experience in battleground states such as Nevada. Follow her on Twitter: @MarissaAlisa