Warren Gets Warm Welcome, Intro by South Seattleite, Ahead of Washington Primary

by Emerald Staff

Long lines formed early Saturday afternoon for Elizabeth Warren's evening appearance at the Seattle Center. The ethnic and age diverse crowd filled the Center's Armory to capacity — including a significant number of dads and young daughters.

Hundreds of additional supporters were redirected to the closed circuit screens in Fisher Pavilion; those supporters were treated to a few minutes with Warren before she hit the main stage. Warren was Introduced by Toshiko Hasegawa, executive director of the Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs and lifelong Beacon Hill resident.

Welcomed by chants of "Dream Big, Fight Hard!" Warren announced that in the three days since last Wednesday's debate in Las Vegas, her campaign has raised over $9 million. She thanked Nevada for keeping her in the race and congratulated Bernie Sanders on winning the state's caucuses. Warren then called candidate Michael Bloomberg a real threat, "we're not substituting one arrogant billionaire for another. This country is not for sale."

She told her personal story of family financial struggle, but quickly pivoted to the focus of her campaign: systems change for the rights and livelihood of all: path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants, a wealth tax, climate justice, quality education for all — and getting rid of the filibuster that allows Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, to control judicial appointments and refuse to consider bills passed by the House.

One of Warren's loudest and sustained applause came from her response to an audience question: she said she would pick a running mate who is a true "partner in the fight" and appoint a secretary of education who believes in public education and an attorney general who follows the law, a clear reference to current Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Attorney General William Barr.

MSNBC reporter, Ali Vitali, mentioned "you would never know that Elizabeth Warren came in 4th, based on the enthusiastic 7,000 supporters in Seattle tonight and the fact that she's still doing selfies two hours after the event ended."

With 60% of the total votes counted in the Nevada caucuses, Sanders (48%) won by an overwhelming margin with Joe Biden (21%) coming in a much lower second, followed by Pete Buttigieg (15%) and Elizabeth Warren (10%) coming in third and fourth. Sanders now has 34 national delegates to Buttigieg's 23; the others' delegate counts remain in single digits.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Times endorsed Amy Klobuchar, with the paper's editorial board billing the moderate Klobuchar as a "pragmatic and authentic progressive."

Klobuchar's highest standing is third place in New Hampshire; she came in fifth in Iowa and Nevada and she comes in near the bottom of the pack in national polls.

Washington's first ever presidential primary is March 10th, one week after Super Tuesday when a number of delegate-rich states, including California will be up for grabs. With so many candidates still in the race, Washington's vote will be very significant.

Our ballots were mailed out this week and voters can drop them in the mail, without postage, or in one of the nearly 70 drop boxes throughout the county. For more information or drop box locations near you: kingcounty.gov/elections

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Featured image: Elizabeth Warren and Toshiko Hasegawa by Susan Fried