UCLA students host gathering to support Ready for Warren campaign

Political conversations filled the air Wednesday night as about 20 UCLA students met in a Westwood apartment to advocate for Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president.

On Wednesday, house parties like this one were held across the country with the sole purpose of encouraging Warren to run for president in 2016. The Ready for Warren campaign organized the house parties nationwide to show Warren that people think she has the support to run.

“These Ready for Warren parties are a way for us to show Warren the amount of support she has,” said Devin Murphy, a fourth-year political science and African American studies student, former Undergraduate Students Association Council president and one of the hosts of the party.

While the midterm election has just finished, and there are still two more years left in President Barack Obama’s term, the UCLA students at this party are already looking toward the 2016 presidential election, saying they are not satisfied with the candidates they think may run.

Many of these students said they think former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seems to be the frontrunner for the Democratic Party nomination.

“I’ve been a big supporter of Hillary Clinton. … I think that she is more than qualified to be president, but there needs to be some conversation and debate – Hillary needs to have some competition,” Murphy said.

Warren has stated in news conferences and interviews that she does not plan to run for president. However, Erica Sagrans, the founder of Ready for Warren, said that before Warren was a senator, she did not run for office until the public urged her to either.

“I think that the work we are doing will show Warren that if she decides to run, she has a base she can count on, and I believe that that will convince her to run,” Sagrans said.

Joel Aberbach, a political science professor, said he disagrees with Sagrans. While he said he thinks it is too early to predict whether Warren will run, he thinks that as long as Clinton runs, Warren will stay out of the race.

That possibility didn’t seem to deter the people at the party Wednesday.

“We need someone who keeps fighting for the middle class and challenges the status quo, and Warren is the only one who has always had the people’s interests in mind,” said Hannah Jakobsen, a second-year global studies and French student.

Jacob Kohlhepp, external vice president of Bruin Republicans, said he would not support Warren as president because he thinks she is too liberal and too progressive. He added that he thinks her policies to increase the size of the government and raise taxes are not good for the country.

However, Warren’s liberal stances were one of the main reasons why people at the party said they supported her.

“I’m kind of a leftist, so I’d like to see Warren run and keep the Democratic party progressive,” said Jon Mccollum, a fourth-year mathematics student.