Warren Campaign's Mass. Director: 'Painful' To See Diverse Field Winnow To Current Choices

It's been nearly a week since Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren suspended her campaign for the White House following a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday, including a third place finish in her home state. Members of her campaign team are now deciding what to do next.

Jossie Valentin is a former Holyoke city councilor and was director of the Warren campaign in Massachusetts. Valentin, who endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary, says this time around she's more interested in working on down-ballot races.

Jossie Valentin: My work with Senator Warren over the last 13 months was just really an amazing journey, an amazing lesson, and just a real exercise of how much work we still need to do on so many levels in this nation, especially when I look at groups that I identify with, as a woman, as a lesbian, as a Puerto Rican. And so I'm looking to focus on down-ballot races more.

Kari Njiiri, NEPR: When you say down-ballot races, any in particular?

So some folks were asking on Twitter, you know, who do we put our energy into now? And one person that I very quickly mentioned was one of our former national co-chairs, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. I will do everything I can to make sure that Ayanna is back where she needs to be when this re-election comes up. So that's the first one that comes to mind.

We witnessed the most diverse Democratic Party field of presidential candidates. And it's not been reduced to two older white men. I'm interested in your thoughts on on how this campaign has evolved.

So, going from an extremely diverse field to what we have right now is painful. When folks were dropping out, there was always an impact, right? When [Kirsten] Gillibrand dropped out, it was very painful. It felt like she shouldn't have left that early. When Kamala Harris dropped out, it was double painful, because it was a woman and a woman of color.

But I will tell you that the one that I think hurt me the most was Secretary [Julian] Castro...because it felt like he had brought a level of narrative to this race as a candidate that really was just unparalleled. And I was so grateful when I learned that he was going to endorse Senator Warren very quickly, just a couple of days after he dropped out of the race, and become one of our top surrogates. And so that was an opportunity to continue his message as a Latino man, as a man who is very knowledgeable regarding immigration and his own life experience with his own family.

These are topics that, I feel, when I look at representation in politics, is so crucial. Being able to see on stage people that you can identify with that look like you, that sound like you. I think that Elizabeth Warren was that for a lot of us, Castro was that for a lot of us, Kamala Harris was that for a lot of us. And to see where we are right now, it's very discouraging. It's really hard to push people to keep their hopes up when it seems like systematically some of the things are just kind of still the same over and over again.

Do you think this is pragmatism or is it just risk-averse behavior, if you will?

I think people are terrified of another four years of Trump. I think we all are. And we're at this point where some people are just going to throw their hands up in the air and say, 'I'm done.' Other people, like I am feeling right now, will say, 'I'm not done, but I'm going to put my time and energy and effort into this other piece,' which is as important, right? So one thing is the presidency, another thing is, as Democrats, we need to flip the Senate.

I mean, we have an amazing platform that Elizabeth Warren has given us in terms of plans. We have over 50 of them, right? And the reality is they're still up. They're still on the website. They're up for grabs, right? We want to live in an America where if it's not going to be the candidate that we wanted to be implementing some of these things, we still say, 'The ideas are still there. How do we move together on it, so that we can really improve the quality of life of all of us here?'

And so my hope is that this is something that will come and that by focusing also on down-ballot races, we can help push that message upwards as well.

So what are you going to do now?

I'm actually going to Puerto Rico for 10 days. I'm going to spend time with my wife and my family...I haven't really seen my family in in a year. And I'm going to just try to focus on what's next. I don't have a plan yet, even though I worked for the candidate with the plans. And that's OK. And honestly, I think, this is some time to recharge batteries and try to refocus on what makes sense.