Ready for Warren endorses Sanders

Two top officials with Ready for Warren, the group that attempted to nudge Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) into a presidential bid, are throwing their support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders, who appears to be Hillary Clinton’s progressive foil.

“While Warren is the champion who inspired this movement, the draft effort was never just about her — it’s about her message and the values she represents,” Erica Sagrans and Charles Lenchner write in an opinion piece on CNN released Friday morning.

“Bernie Sanders has caught fire in a way that’s reminiscent of the draft Warren movement itself — from the Internet to town halls in Iowa, Sanders has captured the imagination and support of people looking for a real progressive challenger in the 2016 Democratic primary.”

{mosads}Sagrans is the campaign manager for the group, which has now rebranded itself as Ready to Fight. Lenchner is the group’s co-founder.

Sanders has emerged as Clinton’s leading opponent from the left. While he still trails Clinton by significant margins in most national and statewide polls, he’s racking up strong poll numbers in New Hampshire and is drawing large crowds in Iowa.

The two write that 56 percent of the group’s supporters have asked it to back Sanders, whom the article frames as the new torchbearer of the “Warren Wing.”

“You can see it in everything from the fight against TPP to the growing momentum around Bernie Sanders, and in the way Hillary Clinton and even Republican candidates are echoing Warren’s themes on income inequality,” the op-ed says.

The Ready for Warren rebrand comes weeks after another group, Run Warren Run, suspended operations after it delivered a petition of 365,000 signatures urging Warren to run.