Elizabeth Warren wins endorsement of Des Moines Register, Iowa’s top newspaper

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., won a key endorsement Saturday when Iowa’s largest newspaper announced that it will back her for the Democratic presidential nomination, just days before the state’s caucuses.

“The senior U.S. senator from Massachusetts is not the radical some perceive her to be,” the Des Moines Register’s Editorial Board said. “She was a registered Republican until 1996. She is a capitalist.”

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The Register’s backing is a significant boost for Warren, whom polls suggest trails Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the state.

“Yes, I heard and I’m delighted,” Warren told reporters Saturday evening in Iowa after the Register announced its endorsement.

The Register’s Editorial Board cites her background as a former Harvard professor, as well as her role in setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as part of the Dodd-Frank reforms after the 2008 financial crisis. It praises her for seeking reforms in making sure the economy benefits working families.

However, the endorsement does not come without caveats, saying that “some of her ideas for ‘big structural change’ go too far” on issues such as "Medicare-for-all."

“This board could not endorse the wholesale overhaul of corporate governance or cumulative levels of taxation she proposes,” it says. “While the board has long supported single-payer health insurance, it believes a gradual transition is the more realistic approach. But Warren is pushing in the right direction.”

The board praises rivals such as Biden (whom it says would “restore credibility to the White House”) and Sanders (who “champions the working class"), but says that “the country needs more.”

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“We need a president who can work the levers of government to translate ideas into signed laws and effective regulations. We need a president committed to bringing our troops home from open-ended foreign entanglements,” it says. "We need a president who understands that the American dream itself is at risk: the idea that someone who works hard and plays by the rules can get ahead, and that their children will do even better.”

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“With Warren, the Oval Office will be occupied by someone who has made rebuilding the middle class her life’s work,” the board says.

Warren was one of a number of candidates who were planning to hold town halls and other events in Iowa on Saturday as part of a final push before the caucuses on Feb. 3.

Warren and other senators have been hampered by the ongoing Senate impeachment trial of President Trump, which has forced them to stay in Washington, D.C., while their non-senator rivals have been able to tour the primary states unencumbered.

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Warren’s campaign on Saturday hinted at financial woes when it emailed prospective donors ahead of an “important January fundraising deadline.” Fall short of her financial targets, the campaign warned, and “we risk having to scale back our advertising plan during the most critical period of this election.”

Fox News’ Tara Prindiville and The Associated Press contributed to this report.