Elizabeth Warren Campaign Accused of Discrimination

A month ago this would have been big news. Now it’s just kicking Senator Paleface when she’s already down.

A half-dozen women of color have departed Elizabeth Warren’s Nevada campaign in the run-up to the state’s caucuses with complaints of a toxic work environment in which minorities felt tokenized and senior leadership was at loggerheads.

Remember, not all that long ago, when the media was talking up Warren’s brilliant operation.

But, as usual on political campaigns, when one of these beasts start sinking, staffers flee and start shooting each other on the way out the door.

“During the time I was employed with Nevada for Warren, there was definitely something wrong with the culture,” said Megan Lewis, a field organizer who joined the campaign in May and departed in December. “I filed a complaint with HR, but the follow-up I received left me feeling as though I needed to make myself smaller or change who I was to fit into the office culture.”

Another recently departed staffer, also a field organizer, granted anonymity because she feared reprisal, echoed that sentiment. “I felt like a problem — like I was there to literally bring color into the space but not the knowledge and voice that comes with it,” she said in an interview.

This seems like the sort of thing that happens when you hire snowflake activists whose only degree is in filling complaints in college to the deans of diversity about the lack of diversity in the wood paneling.

The tumult in Warren’s Nevada operation comes during a larger transition in Democratic campaigns, as a new generation of women and people of color fill the ranks of organizers and campaign managers. For generations, campaigns have been dominated by white men, especially at the top. But this year’s Democratic field has seen record diversity among campaign managers, including Warren’s Roger Lau who is the first Asian-American campaign manager for a major presidential candidate.

So much for diversity.