Boston Herald reporter Kimberly Atkins said on Sunday that Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D., Mass.) biggest barrier to a potential 2020 presidential campaign is voters and Democratic staffers have already lost interest in her running.
"I think, and sadly enough as we're two years out of the presidential election, I think Elizabeth Warren's biggest problem is people are already getting tired of her," Atkins said on "Meet the Press."
Warren is one of the many Democrats contemplating a run for president in 2020, and she has made several moves that indicate she will run. Back in October, Warren released a DNA test showing she was anywhere between 1/64th to 1/1,024th Native American. She highlighted the results in a highly produced video and believed the results put the questions about her heritage to rest. They didn't.
Advisers to Warren have suggested she apologize for the DNA test.
"The presidential buzz around her has been going on for so long, and the pushback that she got after that terrible DNA rollout, I would think that the staffers are trying to protect their future jobs and trying to distance themselves," Atkins said.
"Her chief of staff is apparently meeting with Beto O'Rourke," anchor Chuck Todd said. O'Rourke, an outgoing congressman, lost his Senate bid to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) in November.
"I think that's a problem for her. There's been a lot of reliance on how unpopular she is in Massachusetts. Voters in Massachusetts are always going to hate it when their leaders run for president. That's why Mitt Romney couldn't get re-elected governor. That's why Deval Patrick's popularity -- ask Michael Dukakis. That happens to everyone," Atkins said. "But I think in this case, Elizabeth Warren possibly didn't realize how high her political perils were and sort of floated things that really fell early. And in a field this big, people immediately start looking at the next best thing."
The Boston Globe published an editorial last week that encouraged Warren not to run for president.
"Warren missed her moment in 2016, and there’s reason to be skeptical of her prospective candidacy in 2020," the editorial board wrote. "While Warren won reelection, her margin of victory in November suggests there’s a ceiling on her popularity; Republican governor Charlie Baker garnered more votes than her in a state that is supposed to be a Democratic haven. Meanwhile, a September poll indicated that Massachusetts voters were more enthusiastic about Patrick making a White House bid than Warren."