About Warren’s Senate Seat

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What happens if Biden selects Elizabeth Warren as his running mate? With the Democrats needing just three Senate pickups for a majority, some commentators contend that this dilemma makes Warren a long shot. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, would get to fill the Senate vacancy and thus cost Democrats a crucial seat.

True or false? Mostly false, it turns out. For starters, the Massachusetts legislature can change the rules, as it has done twice in the recent past.

When Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry ran for president in 2004 and Republican Mitt Romney was governor, the legislature removed the governor’s power to fill a Senate vacancy. Then, when Sen. Ted Kennedy died in 2009 and Democrat Deval Patrick was governor, they changed the rules back because they needed that Democratic vote to pass the Affordable Care Act.

The Commonwealth’s solons have a keen sense of situational ethics.

And a trivia question: Who was the seat-warmer until the special election of January 2010, whose surprise winner was Republican Scott Brown, later ousted in 2012 by Warren? It was longtime Kennedy aide Paul Kirk, who cast a crucial Senate vote for the ACA in December 2009.

However, it gets a little more complicated. As our friend Peter Dreier has pointed out, there is not sufficient time between the November election and the January inauguration for a special election. Would the seat just stay vacant, possibly allowing Mitch McConnell to remain majority leader during Biden’s first hundred days?

In fact, the legislature could require the governor to fill the seat with a Democrat, selected from a small list approved by party or legislative leaders, pending a special election. Six other states require their governor to appoint an interim senator from the same party as the previous incumbent, and courts have not objected.

Would the Massachusetts legislature cooperate? Would Charlie Baker?

Of course. The state needs massive help from an incoming Democratic president—everything from a renewal of its Medicaid waiver to federal financial aid. Massachusetts Republicans and Democrats alike would be happy to do Biden that favor.

Have conversations already been had? You bet they have.

So, there may be other obstacles to Sen. Warren getting the VP nod. But this is not one.

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