Run Warren Run campaign shuts down after raising 360,000 signatures

The progressive group spent $1.25 million on the campaign

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren addresses a rally in support of Social Security and Medicare at Capitol Hill on September 2014. (Getty Images)

A popular online campaign encouraging Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to run for president announced it will come to an end.

The “Run Warren Run” initiative ran for six months with the hopes that Ms Warren would enter the 2016 presidential race. Democracy for America and MoveOn.org — two progressive organisations — together spent $1.25 million on the campaign, the groups said in a statement.

The group had planned to visit Ms Warren’s Washington, DC office on June 8 and deliver a petition with 365,000 signatures asking the senator to run. They also recruited more than 60 state legislators and leaders from Iowa and New Hampshire to join the effort.

However, Ms Warren has insisted that she would influence policies more effectively as a senator than as a presidential candidate. When asked by NPR if she would be running in 2016, she simply stated: “I am not running for president — you want me to put an exclamation point at the end?”

“The Run Warren Run campaign has changed the conversation by showing that Americans are hungry for Elizabeth Warren’s agenda — an agenda that rejects the rigged status quo in Washington and puts working and middle-class Americans over corporate interests,” said Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action.

“We’ve assembled a grassroots army and demonstrated the substantial support Sen. Warren could expect if she were to enter the race. Now it’s time to suspend our active draft efforts and pivot to standing alongside Sen. Warren on the big fights ahead, starting with stopping Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”

The campaign hasn’t announced whether they will get behind candidates who are running — Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley have both announced their bid to run against Ms Clinton in 2016.