A cardboard cutout of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) was placed outside the Democratic National Committee’s 2015 Winter Meeting on Friday, eliciting a mixed reactions from attendees.
The cutout was placed in front of the Hyatt Regency by staff of the Republican National Committee to "serve as a sidewalk greeter" for attendees as they entered the meeting. "Ready for Warren" stickers branded with GOP.com were also offered to those that passed by.
Some attendees that passed by were clearly "Ready for Warren," sending exuberant thumbs-up and winks toward the life-like Warren cutout.
One woman, Katie Solon, the international chair of Democrats Abroad, even asked to pose with the Warren cutout, stating that she loved the Massachusetts senator.
Others were not excited about the presence of Warren at the DNC meeting.
One apparent supporter of Hillary Clinton appeared agitated by the cutout, and stopped just before entering the hotel to loudly yell "ELIZABETH WHO?" in a highly animated fashion.
Olma Echeverri, a member of the Hispanic American Democrats of North Carolina, said that if it were up to her, Warren would run for president. However, she doesn’t think that Warren could win.
"I don’t think the United States is ready for Elizabeth Warren," Echeverri said from the lobby of the Hyatt. "She is right, but she is seen as very liberal and I just don’t think we could win the Presidency with her."
Asked why they chose to erect a cutout of Warren outside the DNC meeting, a spokesman for the RNC said that they "we’re just having some fun with the clear divide between Democratic Party grassroots who are yearning for someone other than Hillary Clinton and the Democratic establishment that is trying to coronate Clinton to Obama’s third-term."
President Barack Obama, who had just finished a roundtable with major DNC donors, drove by the waving Warren cutout in his motorcade, though it was unclear whether he waved back.