Ready for Warren, the super PAC formed to draft Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren into the 2016 presidential race, is expanding its team and hiring organizers in key presidential states, according to a job posting obtained by msnbc.
The super PAC is hiring a deputy campaign manager, as well as state coordinators to be based in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, which hold the first three spots in the presidential nominating contest.
The group is looking for a deputy who can help run day-to-day operations and work remotely, full or part time.
“An organizer at heart, you should be scrappy and creative, with the ability to successfully build teams, manage volunteers, and empower leaders,” founder Erica Sagrans writes in the job posting, sent to a group of progressive organizers and operatives. Also a must: “[A] commitment to drafting Elizabeth Warren and pushing for a progressive champion in the 2016 presidential race.”
The state coordinators with be “Ready for Warren’s point person on the ground in your state,” she continues. Their job will include: Organizing local events, supporting Warren allies in the 2014 midterm elections, building a volunteer team, developing relationship with local leaders and activists, and interfacing with local media. Those are part-time positions.
It’s a major expansion for a super PAC that has been dwarfed by the much better funded pro-Hillary Clinton effort. Ready for Hillary, which started first, has had staffers on the ground in key primary and caucus states for months.
Warren has repeatedly said she’s not running for president in 2016 and in August, disavowed Ready for Warren via her lawyer. “This letter serves as a formal disavowal of the organization and its activity,” Warren’s attorney wrote to the Federal Election Commission. “The Senator has not, and does not, explicitly or implicitly, authorize, endorse, or otherwise approve of the organization’s activities.”
When asked about the group that month, Lacey Rose, the senator’s press secretary, said only, “Senator Warren does not support this effort.”
Sagrans confirmed the expansion to msnbc. “We’ve already seen a huge desire for a progressive champion like Warren to run in 2016, and this is the next step to build that into a grassroots campaign that’s ready to get Warren’s back if she decides to get in the race,” she said in an email.
The group had a small presence at the Iowa Steak Fry last month, signing up several hundred supporters at the event where Clinton made her much-anticipated return to the state. Some of those holding pro-Warren signs said they hoped the effort would move Clinton to the left, even if Warren didn’t run. Ready for Warren has said that even if their champion doesn’t run, they hope to “push for a progressive alternative in 2016.”
Alex Seitz-Wald