Senator Elizabeth Warren’s brother, Donald Reed Herring, 86, passed away from COVID-19 on Thursday in Oklahoma. The senator posted a heartfelt message on social media, stating “I will miss my brother.” She thanked the medical staff who are fighting to help patients with the disease and explained how tough the grief of losing family is.
“I’m grateful to the nurses and other front-line staff who took care of my brother, but it is hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say, ‘I love you’ one more time,” Warren said. “And now there’s no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close.” This is due to the highly contagious nature of COVID, which prevents family from visiting patients. Due to social distancing guidelines, there will be no funeral service for Herring.
At the start of 2020, Warren was considered a strong contender for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 election. She was near the top of the pack, along with fellow progressive Bernie Sanders and moderate centrist Pete Buttigieg. In November of 2019, she was polling better than any other candidate, including the ever-popular Sanders.
However, a series of early defeats, including in her home state of Massachusetts, led to her bowing out of the race in February. Many noted how Warren stayed in the race longer than any of the centrist candidates other than former Vice President Joe Biden. Some even argue that Sanders was hobbled on Super Tuesday due to Warren splitting the progressive vote. This, in essence, handed Biden the nomination.
Warren has railed against the characterization of her campaign as a “spoiler” of Sanders’. However, this has not stopped progressive in-fighting from devouring the left flank of America’s political spectrum. Suffice it to say, Warren was having a rough year before the pandemic.
Now, with Joe Biden the presumptive nominee for the Democratic nomination, Warren’s campaign is simply a facet of history. However, her brother’s tragic passing underscores the unique challenges posed by COVID-19. The country is reeling, with unemployment soaring and the death toll ever rising.
COVID has become the second-highest cause of death in the US, behind only heart disease. Strokes caused by AFib, heart attacks and the like remain the deadliest health conditions, but only barely.
The Democratic Party has put outsized effort into unseating incumbent Donald Trump. However, Biden has not energized the party’s left, nor the younger voters they will need to win over to win in November. Biden has allegedly reached out to Sanders for help in building a coalition to motivate voters by the time of the general election.
