Reid looking into replacing Warren if she’s Clinton’s VP: report

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is reviewing ways to keep Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) seat blue if she becomes vice president, according to The Boston Globe.

Warren is heavily rumored to be in the mix to be Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s running mate.

{mosads}But Massachusetts’s Republican governor, Charlie Baker, could appoint a GOP replacement for Warren, potentially jeopardizing the Democrats’ chances of winning control of the Seante.

“Reid sees a number of promising paths to making sure that Democrats keep Warren’s seat and is very open to her being selected,” a source told the Globe.

Reid reportedly commissioned a review of Massachusetts law by Washington, D.C., election law attorney Marc Elias.

Elias is also the general counsel for Clinton’s presidential bid, and has additionally previously advised Warren on legal matters.

The report said the analysis focused solely on Massachusetts, and Reid did not request a similar study of other states.

Massachusetts currently requires a special election within 145 to 160 days for any House or Senate vacancy.

Governors can typically appoint a successor in such instances, potentially impacting the Senate’s political make-up. Reid’s team, however, identified a rule allowing the current office-holder to start the election clock early by filing a resignation letter.

Individuals such as Warren must also announce the intention of vacating their seat at a later date.

Warren could theoretically file such a letter before the Jan. 20, 2017, inauguration, effectively blocking Baker from naming her replacement.

If Warren’s ticket lost in November, though, she would have to either rescind her resignation letter or run again for the seat she already vacated.

Reid late last month fiercely rejected the idea of the Democratic nominee picking a senator to become vice president from any states with GOP governors.

“If we have a Republican governor in any of those states, the answer is not only no, but hell no,” he said on MSNBC. “[I’d] yell and scream to stop that.”