"Run Warren Run" Is Officially Over

Let's be clear: Elizabeth Warren was never running for president in 2016. The Massachusetts senator and rising progressive star has repeatedly put her foot down over the last year, even going so far as to disavow the Ready for Warren Super PAC in August 2014. Alas, it was not meant to be for this progressive senator. On Tuesday, another PAC in Warren's name, the MoveOn.org-funded Run Warren Run, suspended its campaign, officially concluding the rags-to-White House tale many Warren supporters were praying for.

Run Warren Run organizers Ilya Sheyman and Charles Chamberlain of MoveOn.org announced the disbandment in an editorial published Tuesday in Politico Magazine. "There’s no sugar-coating it: We didn’t achieve our central goal," the organizers write. "But there’s a bigger story that gives us tremendous hope ... Senator Warren’s agenda and message have transformed the American political landscape."

According to an email sent to MoveOn.org members moments after the Politico announcement, the organizers will hand-deliver a petition of 365,000 signatures to Warren's office in Washington, D.C. next week. Once the signatures are delivered, the Run Warren Run campaign will officially suspend its operations, the email read.

But the PAC already admits that they know Warren jumping into the 2016 race is unlikely. "Senator Warren has heard our case, and she declined to run. We respect her decision," Sheyman and Chamberlain write. They added that if Warren reconsiders in the future, the Run Warren Run campaign will "regroup at a moment's notice."

Although a Warren presidency has always seemed like a liberal's pipe dream, the Run Warren Run organizers say their campaign turned out successful: It got people — namely, presidential candidates — talking about ideal and planks that may have been left off the Democratic agenda for 2016.

The Run Warren Run campaign continued in Politico:

Echoing Warren’s famous adage that "the game is rigged," Hillary Clinton declared in her campaign announcement that "the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top." Bernie Sanders emerged out of the gate as a far stronger contender than political bookmakers could have imagined just a few months ago. And Martin O’Malley launched his campaign on Saturday calling for the breaking up of big banks and jailing of Wall Street crooks.

This disbandment comes at a crucial time for the Democratic Party and its three possible presidential candidates; with Warren's supporters turning in the proverbial towel, Clinton, Sanders, and O'Malley now have the opportunity to snatch up her thousands of advocates. It would be interesting, particularly, to see how this effects Sanders' surging campaign. The senator from Vermont, who self identifies as a Democratic Socialist and is closely aligned, politically, with Warren, may have the best opportunity here to bolster his once-unlikely campaign that's shaping up to be a true test for Clinton's all-but-a-sure-thing run.

The Run Warren Run campaign praised Sanders' current viability, and also noted the progressives may have become a bit more optimistic now that Warren's non-campaign helped turn Sanders into the politician to rally behind:

You'd better believe that every ambitious progressive politico in the nation was paying attention. We've helped to shift the incentives, demonstrating that there’s a grassroots army holding up a career ladder for public servants who actually seek to serve the public.

Though the Run Warren Run editorial does end quite ominously — perhaps they, too, recognize that Clinton may be unbeatable, despite her recent slip in approval rating. "We’re due for a profound political reckoning that restores our founders’ dream of government by and for the people," the Run Warren Run organizers write. "No one candidate can deliver that. It's up to us."Images: Getty Images, screenshot/Run Warren Run