The Candidate Hundreds of Former Obama Staffers Are Backing for President in an Open Letter — and It’s Not Hillary

More than 300 former campaign employees of President Barack Obama expressed their support in an open letter for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for president in 2016.

“We believed in an unlikely candidate who no one thought had a chance,” said the letter, first reported by the New York Times. “Rising income inequality is the challenge of our times, and we want someone who will stand up for working families and take on the Wall Street banks and special interests that took down our economy.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. speaks to the Center for American Progress’s Second Annual Policy Conference in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Warren has repeatedly said she has no plans to run for president in 2016, despite mounting progressive support for her to enter the campaign.

All of the employees either worked for Obama’s 2008 campaign, 2012 campaigns or for Organizing for Action, the advocacy group that grew out of his campaigns.

Most held midlevel jobs, the Times reported. Some of the higher ranking employees were on the technology side: Rajeev Chopra, who was chief information officer for both the 2008 and 2012 campaigns; Catherine Bracy, director of the 2012 campaign’s tech field office in San Francisco; and Judith Freeman, the Obama campaign’s new media field manager in 2008.

Thus far, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a clear frontrunner in all-Democratic presidential polls. Some Obama advisers, such as Jim Messina, have gone to work for a pro-Clinton political action committee.

For her part, Clinton has made no formal announcement on her 2016 plans, but unlike Warren, Clinton has not ruled out running.

“These former Obama staffers are joining the growing momentum behind Elizabeth Warren because we believe in Warren’s vision for our country, and we’d love to see her run in 2016,” Erica Saran’s, who previously worked for the Obama campaign and is currently the campaign manager for the Ready for Warren super PAC, told the Times.

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