Former President George W. Bush's political guru Karl Rove said Monday that liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren could make the 2016 Democratic primaries difficult for presumptive Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
Warren would "certainly give her a scare," Rove told syndicated talk-show host
Hugh Hewitt.
Warren's "hard-left prescriptions on the economy sing to the heart of Democratic primary voters," Rove said. "So yeah, I think she could give her a run for her money."
Rove said he was unsure whether Warren could actually defeat the former secretary of State to win the Democratic nomination.
"Clinton is going to have a lot of money," he said. "She does have an expert political adviser in her husband. And she's about ready get a master mind of her presidential campaign in the form of John Podesta, who's tough enough to keep the warring factions that always make up a Clinton campaign together."
Early state-by-state polls suggest that Warren, a freshman senator elected in 2012, would have an uphill battle to defeat Clinton.
Real Clear Politics (RCP) reports that in the Iowa Democratic Caucus, an NBC/Marist poll released Sunday showed Clinton with 68 percent of the vote, 56 points ahead Warren and Vice President Joseph Biden, who finished tied for second with 12 percent of the vote each.