Liberals assessing 2016 race as Clinton weighs bid


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WASHINGTON (AP) — As Hillary Rodham Clinton promotes her book, liberals in the Democratic Party are elbowing into the 2016 presidential conversation, pitching a populist message on the U.S. economy and immigration.

Potential Clinton rivals like Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley are in the middle of a summertime tour of Democratic constituencies and campaigns, drawing contrasts to Clinton as she weighs a heavily anticipated second presidential bid.

Biden and Warren addressed Generation Progress, an organization of young Democratic activists, on Wednesday and are speaking at the annual Netroots Nation conference later in the week, putting them before liberals who form a core of the Democratic base. O'Malley has been exploring a presidential campaign for months and made a splash last weekend when he said the Obama administration should not turn away Central American immigrant children crossing the border without due process.

Clinton, who dominates early 2016 polls, may avoid a significant primary challenge if she runs for president. Biden has kept all options open, Warren has repeatedly denied interest, while O'Malley promotes his record in Maryland as a model in the party. But the jousting shows an interest in an alternative, and preparations in the event Clinton doesn't run.

In her speech Warren said that the political system was "rigged" toward powerful lobbyists and made an impassioned case for reducing burdensome student loans. Biden said he had been on the front lines of debate over income inequality, climate change and gay marriage.

Biden has been a leading advocate for President Barack Obama's agenda, backing unsuccessful efforts to raise the minimum wage and curb gun violence. The vice president has maintained ties to the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina and projects a blue-collar image in contrast to the former first lady's recent stumbles over discussions of her family's wealth.

During a White House summit on working families last month, Biden said he had been the "poorest man in Congress" and didn't own a single stock or bond — even though financial disclosures show he had a small savings account and owned mutual funds. Biden's remarks came as Clinton faced criticism for saying her family was "dead broke" when they left the White House in January 2001 because of hefty legal bills fending off Republican-led investigations. The Clintons paid off their debt and became multimillionaires within a few years.

Warren has become a hero of the party's economic populists, railing against high student loan debt at a time when Clinton has received six-figure speaking fees on college campuses. She passes them along to her family's foundation.

O'Malley has made trips to Iowa and New Hampshire in the past month and notably distanced himself from both Clinton and Obama on the crisis along the Mexican border.

"We are not a country that should turn children away and send them back to certain death," O'Malley told reporters in Nashville, Tennessee, during a weekend meeting of the National Governors Association.

Clinton cited the need to reunite the children with their families but said during a CNN forum in June that the U.S. needed to "send a clear message: Just because your child gets across the border doesn't mean your child gets to stay."

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