Braininess Is Now the Brand
For a party dependent on highly educated voters, Buttigieg’s rise and Warren’s resurgence foretell the future.
Among the biggest surprises of the Democratic presidential campaign so far are the rise of Pete Buttigieg and the resurgence of Elizabeth Warren, both of whom, according to a new Des Moines Register poll, have moved into a virtual tie for second place in Iowa with Bernie Sanders. In many ways, the Buttigieg and Warren phenomena are distinct: Buttigieg promises generational change; Warren is almost 70. Buttigieg emphasizes his success in a conservative state; Warren stresses her willingness to challenge corporate power. Buttigieg has become a darling of the big donors whom Warren eschews.
What unites them, and separates them from Sanders and Joe Biden, is their unabashed intellectualism. Both have made braininess central
