WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden’s meeting Saturday with Sen. Elizabeth Warren doesn’t necessarily mean a Biden-Warren ticket for 2016, but it showed Democratic Party activists and donors how seriously he’s pondering a late run for president.
The private, surprise session between the vice president and Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat once seen as Hillary Clinton’s strongest challenger for the nomination, comes at a pivotal point in the contest.
After his son Beau’s death in May from brain cancer, Biden has been shifting from not ruling out a run against Clinton to a posture in which he and backers are strategically, if mostly behind the scenes, testing his viability in early voting states and among uncommitted, major Democratic donors.
While Clinton remains the front-runner, with support from key donors and organizers locked down, mounting concerns about how she’s handled questions about her use of a private email server while secretary of state have increased support for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a socialist who many in the Democratic establishment believe can’t win a general election.
Warren supporters comprise an energetic and significant element of the Democratic base. Clinton, who also understands Warren’s importance in the party, met privately with her last December.
Neither Biden aides nor Warren aides would discuss details of the meeting. Supporters of Warren had organized efforts to get her into the race, while she has said repeatedly she wouldn’t seek the presidency next year.
An affiliation with Warren, champion of the progressive movement and a critic of Wall Street, may help Biden confront the challenge of being a 72-year-old white man with an old-school approach to politics courting support in a party increasingly reliant on women, minorities and younger voters who communicate through social media.
Other Democrats in the race, including Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, haven’t been able to gain traction. Those developments are creating a window for Biden, while Democratic strategists say it remains unclear whether the window is big enough.
Biden has been expected to decide by the end of September whether to run, though in recent days some Democrats have indicated they believe he can postpone a decision, possibly even beyond the first Democratic debate in mid-October.
Among the factors Biden is considering is whether he can generate enough support and raise enough money at this relatively late stage, and whether Clinton has been sufficiently weakened.
Dante Scala, a political science associate professor at the University of New Hampshire, said the meeting “clearly stirs the pot.”
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