MILWAUKEE — Senator Elizabeth Warren sat in front of dozens of voters at a campaign office plastered with posters waiting for her turn to speak on a panel about abortion access. When she did, Warren at times grew so impassioned that she nearly left her seat.
But it wasn’t her event, or her campaign. It wasn’t even her home state. She was in the battleground of Wisconsin, to make the case for President Biden in the hopes of firing up the Democrats who had taken time out of their Monday to listen.
“I’m here because Joe Biden fights for abortion access, so I fight for Joe Biden,” Warren said to applause from the crowd.
Biden, she told The Boston Globe in an interview on the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision overturning the federal right to an abortion, has used “every tool” he can as president to preserve access to abortion, and it was vital Democrats like her amplify that record.
“I see this as many voices make us stronger” she said. “The fact that Joe Biden wants me and others to go out and talk about abortion is one more sign of how committed he is to protecting patients to make their own decisions and trying to get . . . politicians out of it.”
The Biden campaign has a long list of validators in its rolodex, from women who have faced health complications because of state abortion restrictions to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has spearheaded the White House response to the rollback of Roe. Many of them were out on Monday in other parts of the country or on stage with Warren to mark the anniversary of the fall of Roe as well. But Warren has quickly risen as one of the highest-profile allies on the topic due to her broad national recognition and credibility on the issue.
“President Biden has come a really long way on this issue. We’re really proud to support him and endorse him,” said Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom For All. “But having a Vice President like Kamala Harris . . . [and] having Elizabeth Warren as a key part of this campaign is a huge deal for us because it means that the campaign is deploying the most effective folks on this issue.”
Warren, who has an official campaign role as a member of its “national advisory board,” has campaigned on a range of topics but allies say that on abortion rights in particular is her sweet spot, citing her ability to appeal to both progressives and suburban women that could play a key role in this year’s presidential race.
“She’s astoundingly good at motivating people, and providing hope, and I think those are two things that are going to be critical this election,” said Amanda Zurawski, an abortion access advocate who nearly died because she was denied abortion care in her home state of Texas. Zurawski was scheduled for events alongside Warren in Wisconsin.
Elizabeth Neupauer, a 35-year-old Democrat who lives in the suburbs of Milwaukee, attended the first event Warren did in Wisconsin on Monday. For her, access to women’s health care ranks high on her list of priorities this year, in part because she was pregnant when Roe fell two years ago, which terrified her.
“It does help sway me, or help to reinforce my vote,” Neupauer said, of Warren’s presence in the state.
Warren has a penchant for channeling the anger felt across the country as a result of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned the federal right to an abortion. After the Dobbs decision was leaked in May 2022, she went on a furious riff outside the Supreme Court that got national attention.
But longtime allies also note that Warren was ahead of much of the Democratic Party in recognizing the threat to abortion access. They point to her making it a key part of her 2020 presidential campaign platform to being an early endorser for candidates like Jessica Cisneros and Marie Newman, progressives who in 2019 challenged antiabortion incumbent Democrats in the House of Representatives in Texas and Illinois respectively.
Cisneros, who unsuccessfully ran against Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar twice, pointed to Warren giving her campaign another shoutout on national TV following the Dobbs decision leak. She urged the audience to donate to Cisneros ahead of the runoff later that month while highlighting Cuellar’s antiabortion record.
“It was another pivotal moment for our campaign because we had one of the best if not the best fund-raising days,” Cisneros told the Globe, to demonstrate how Warren’s support can translate in campaigns.
How effective Democrats can be on this issue in a presidential race remains to be seen. Polls of battleground states by the New York Times, Siena College, and the Philadelphia Inquirer shows that almost 20 percent of voters find Biden more “responsible” than former president Donald Trump for overturning Roe. (While Roe was overturned during Biden’s administration, it was Trump’s appointees to the Supreme Court that made it possible.)
The Biden campaign did not comment on the record for this article. Harris’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In Milwaukee on Monday, Warren said much of her job as a champion for the Biden campaign has involved educating voters.
“People are surprised to learn that protecting abortion at the state level is not enough. That if Republicans take over in November, that abortion is under attack not just in red states but all across the country,” Warren said. She pointed to a recent trip to Michigan, where she spoke with voters who thought that because they had enshrined the right to an abortion in their state constitution, they would be protected if a national abortion ban were passed by Congress. But federal law would supersede those state-level protections, she argued.
Back in Massachusetts, which has become a leading state in protecting abortion access, Warren is up for reelection. Republicans are not focusing on abortion in the race, instead prioritizing issues like the economy.
“The most important factor in the Senate race here in Massachusetts is Trump, and there’s no better way to fly the anti-Trump flag than to serve as an attack dog against him in support of Joe Biden,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a Boston Republican strategist who has in the past consulted for a Warren opponent. Fehrnstrom said it was “smart politics” for Warren to spend so much energy working to reelect Biden.
Warren’s allies praised her ability to connect the dots, from decadeslong efforts to chip away at individual rights through the courts to simplifying complex issues and putting them in human terms. Which is why perhaps it’s no surprise that despite being halfway across the country, Warren still saw what she was doing as squarely in her turf.
“I see this as an important part of my responsibility as the senator from Massachusetts. The best way to protect access to abortion in Massachusetts is to get Joe Biden reelected as president,” Warren said.
Lissandra Villa de Petrzelka can be reached at lissandra.villa@globe.com. Follow her @LissandraVilla.