Can Elizabeth Warren Come Back After Her Native American Stunt? A New Granite State Poll Suggests The Answer Might Be No

To me, and perhaps to many other Americans on both sides of the aisle, she will forever be thought of as Pocahontas.

A newly released University of New Hampshire poll asked 604 randomly selected adult residents to name the one candidate they would not support under any circumstances. Elizabeth Warren topped the list with a whopping 13%. The next highest was Bernie Sanders with 8%, followed by Michael Bloomberg at 6% and Kirsten Gillibrand at 4%. The rest of the candidates came in between 0 and 3%.

Would Not Vote For Candidate Under Any Circumstances

Elizabeth Warren: 13%

Bernie Sanders: 8%

Michael Bloomberg: 6%

Kirsten Gillibrand: 4%

Cory Booker: 3%

Kamala Harris: 3%

Joe Biden: 3%

Beto O’Rourke: 2%

Tulsi Gabbard: 2%

Julian Castro: 1%

Pete Buttgieg: 1%

Amy Klobuchar: 1%

John Hickenlooper: 0%

John Delaney: 0%

Someone Else: 4%

Don’t Know/Not Sure: 35%

None/All Are OK: 15%

*Credit: University of New Hamphire Granite State Poll: https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1551&context=survey_center_polls

One possible reason why these particular candidates scored so highly might be they have higher name recognition than most of the others. However, every American is familiar with Joe Biden who came in at 3%. And Beto O’Rourke’s senate battle against Sen. Ted Cruz thrust him into the national spotlight.

Moreover, the same poll found that Warren’s support has dropped from 17% in August 2018 to its current level of 7%.

President Trump has mocked Warren relentlessly over her claims of Native American ancestry and on several occasions, has pledged to donate $1 million to the charity of her choice if she would take a DNA test to prove it. “Her mother says, ‘She has high cheekbones, that’s why,'” Trump said. “And she’s gotten a lot of advantages by falsely claiming what she’s claiming.”

He even joked about Warren during his CPAC speech. Trump said:

I’m going to regret this. This speech should have been delivered one year from now, not now, damn it.

I should have saved the Pocahontas thing for another year because that destroyed her political career and now I won’t get a chance to run against her. I don’t want to knock out all of the good stuff and wind up with somebody who’s actually got talent.

In October, Warren unwisely released the results of a private DNA analysis which showed that she is anywhere from 1/512 to 1/1024 Native American. The report indicated there was “strong evidence” of Native American ancestry “going back six to 10 generations.” This move was widely criticized and derided on both sides of the aisle.

Warren was ridiculed for a week by the media for this self-inflicted wound. Warren hoped it would pass as many political miscalculations do and that voters would forget about it.

For many Americans, however, this issue runs far deeper; it reflects directly on Warren’s lack of candor and integrity.

This wasn’t just an impromptu claim she made up on the campaign trail. Conservatives have criticized Warren, a former law professor, for using her claim of Native American ancestry to gain an advantage in the academic world, where there is a strong emphasis on diversity in hiring.

According to the Boston Globe, Warren changed her ethnicity from white to Native American at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she worked from 1987 to 1995. She began working as a tenured professor at Harvard University Law School in 1995. Four months after she started, she changed her ethnicity from white to Native American in Harvard’s human resources system.

The weekend after Warren released the genetic analysis, she participated in a Senate candidate debate against her opponent, Republican State Representative Geoff Diehl.

The candidates were questioned about this issue during the debate.

The relevant portion of the video comes at 31:30:

Moderator: Do you think that Senator Warren’s Native American heritage impacts her ability to represent Massachusetts in Washington?

Diehl: You know, it’s not about Senator Warren’s ancestry. It’s about integrity in my mind and I don’t care whether or not you think you benefitted from that claim. It’s the fact that you tried to benefit from that claim that I think bothers a lot of people and it’s something that you have been unable to put to rest since the 2012 campaign. I do not care what percentage of Native American she claims to be. I just care that I am 100% for the people of Massachusetts and will be working for the people of this state. And that’s all I have to say on that issue.

Warren: You know, one of the things I see now is that confidence in government is at an all-time low and I believe one way we try to rebuild confidence is through transparency, so I’ve really made an effort over the past several months. I’ve put ten years of my tax returns online. Anybody can see them. I have put things about my family history online.

I have put my employment record online and yeah, ultimately I took a DNA test because I am an open book and it’s all out there, it’s on the internet, anybody can take a look. Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about me. This is about what’s happening to working families all across this commonwealth. Look, I’m not somebody who ever ran for office before, but I’ll tell you why I ran. I’m a kid who wanted to be a public school teacher and by the time I graduated from high school, we didn’t have the money for a college application much less for me to actually go to college. A lot of twists and turns in my story, but my big chance was a commuter college that cost $50 a semester and it opened a million doors for me. I am the daughter of someone who ended up as a janitor and I got to be a professor and a United States senator. Those opportunities are disappearing for other kids. I’m in this fight for them.

Instead of making a public apology about her claim of Native American ancestry, she doubled down on her lie. Warren’s pride took over and she wouldn’t allow herself to admit she’d lied. As a result, she has become the subject of ridicule.

And this issue will always follow her.