Hillary Clinton used Times Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list to pay tribute to Elizabeth Warren, a lawmaker some liberals hope will challenge the former secretary of state for the 2016 Democratic nomination.
In the short piece, Clinton touts Warren as a champion for the middle class and nods to the duos interesting relationship when she writes that Warren “never hesitates to hold powerful people’s feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants.”
“Elizabeth Warren’s journey from janitor’s daughter to Harvard professor to public watchdog to U.S. Senator has been driven by an unflagging determination to level the playing field for hardworking American families like the one she grew up with in Oklahoma,” Clinton writes. “She fights so hard for others to share in the American Dream because she lived it herself.”
Some liberal activists have protested Clinton’s presidential candidacy by looking to to urge the Massachusetts senator to run. Warren has repeatedly denied that she is running or will run and she even disavowed one of the draft campaigns.
But Warren has not been overwhelmingly supportive of Clinton’s run, either. When asked about the former first lady’s candidacy, Warren usually punts the question.
“I think we need to give her a chance… to lay out what she wants to run on. I think that is her opportunity to” champion issues the senators feels are important, Warren said on NBC’s “Today” when asked if Clinton was the right messenger for the Democratic Party.
Despite the outside pressure to pin them against each other, Warren and Clinton do have a friendly relationship, according to aides.
Clinton has sought advice from the Massachusetts senator “several times” in the last year, a source with knowledge of Clinton’s plans told CNN in February, a sign of how important Warren’s wing of the Democratic party is to the foundation of a would-be presidential bid for the former secretary of state.
Clinton also made Time’s 100 list. Her entry was written by Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of Emerson Collective.
“She is one of America’s greatest modern creations,” Powell Jobs writes. “Her decades in our public life must not blind us to the fact that she represents new realities and possibilities.”
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul also gave tribute to a political force that’s certain to influence his presidential run — Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers behind a network of outside spending groups that are expected to spend nearly $1 billion in the upcoming election.
But Paul, in his Time 100 blurb on the brothers, downplays their campaign spending and instead highlights “their passion for freedom and their commitment to ideas,” which he says is “underappreciated.”
“Unlike many crony capitalists who troll the halls of Congress looking for favors, the Kochs have consistently lobbied against special-interest politics,” Paul writes. “For decades they have funded institutes that promote ideas, not politics, such as Cato and the Mercatus Center.”
He also touts their support for criminal-justice reform, a pet project of his.
While Paul closes by proclaiming that their investments in “freedom-loving think tanks will carry on for generations,” their reported plans to spend $889 million during the 2016 election cycle will certainly have a long-lasting impact on the country as well.
A number of others high profile political figures made Time’s list, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, President Barack Obama and Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker.