The Wine Wars Continue: Warren Had a Winery Fundraiser in 2018

It wasn’t in “an exclusive wine cave” a spokesman notes.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks as South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg listens during the Democratic presidential primary debate at Loyola Marymount University on December 19, 2019 in Los Angeles.Justin Sullivan/Getty

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

It wasn’t in wine cave. But in June 2018 Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren had a fundraiser at the City Winery Boston, where guests who contributed at least $1,000 received a souvenir wine bottle, the Associated Press reported on Saturday.

The event featured a performance by Melissa Etheridge and remarks from Warren, who officially announced her campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination seven months later. The fundraiser also included a VIP photo reception and premium seating for donors who contributed or raised $5,400 per couple or $2,700 a person, the AP reported. That’s a fancy fundraiser with better access for bigger donors, the kind of thing most American politicians do all the time.

The problem for Warren, of course, is that this sounds not all that different from the “wine cave” fundraiser that she blasted South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg over during Thursday’s Democratic debate. Buttigieg’s event was held last Sunday at the Hall Rutherford wine caves in Northern California, which reportedly features a “chandelier with 1,500 Swarovski crystals, an onyx banquet table to reflect its luminescence, and bottles of cabernet sauvignon that sell for as much as $900.” Warren’s attack came after Buttigieg, under pressure by rivals, released a list of campaign bundlers, which appears to be incomplete.

“Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States,” Warren said Thursday. Noting that she does not require donations for backers to join her “selfie lines,” Warren added: “I do not sell access to my time.”

Warren has eschewed such events as a presidential candidate. But, as Buttigieg argued on Thursday, Warren’s previous reliance on traditional fundraisers opens her to hypocrisy charges. “This is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass,” Buttigieg said.

Because Warren transferred funds from her Senate to presidential campaign when she launched her current bid, she is funded in part by the “same big-ticket fundraisers you now denounce,” Buttigieg said. “Did it corrupt you, Senator?” Buttigieg asked. “Of course not.”

In an email to Mother Jones on Saturday, Chris Hayden, a Warren campaign spokesperson, argued that Warren’s 2018 fundraiser is not comparable to Buttigieg’s recent event.

“This event, which occurred before the Presidential campaign, was held at a large public music venue with multiple locations throughout the country, not an exclusive wine cave,” Hayden said. “Their most expensive bottle of wine is $49. As the invite shows, the minimum to get in was $100. It did not require a maxout donation to attend.”

“When we made the decision to run the campaign this way, the players in the usual money-for-influence game dismissed it as naive, said it would never work, and asserted that it would kill the campaign,” he added. “We’re pleased that our 100 percent grassroots strategy has been so effective that they’re now threatened enough to be attacking us for it. They’re right to be worried—because we intend to win and bring structural change to end the stranglehold of big money on our political process.”

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate