Deval Patrick denies his campaign is a critique of Warren

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) denied the notion that his recently launched presidential campaign is a critique of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) campaign in an interview on Tuesday. 

“That’s not my point. I’m trying to be very careful because I am enormously fond and respectful of Sen. Warren,” Patrick said on CNN’s “New Day.”

2020 candidate @DevalPatrick says he sees “that there’s still space for what I offer,” adding that the American people are hungry for someone to unify the country with “ambitious goals rather than saying our way or the highway.”https://t.co/VmI4ljQLC5 pic.twitter.com/QPw431A1fZ

— New Day (@NewDay) November 26, 2019

“This campaign is not a critique of her or others,” he continued. “It is simply that my range of problem-solving experience, my life experience, is broader than most of the other candidates in the race.” 

Patrick clarified a remark he made earlier in the interview in which he cautioned against taking an “our way or the highway approach” in the campaign.  

“I think it is enormously important to emphasize the opportunity to unify the country as we reach for these big and broad ambitious goals rather than saying our way or the highway,” he said. 

Patrick suggested earlier this month that other Democratic contenders are invoking an “our big idea or no way” strategy in the primary. 

“We seem to be migrating to on the one camp, sort of nostalgia. Let’s just get rid of the incumbent president, [and] we can go back to doing what we used to do, or it’s our big idea or no way,” Patrick said on “CBS This Morning.”

Patrick, who jumped into the crowded 2020 field earlier this month, is seen as one of the moderate alternatives to progressives Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). 

The former governor is also seen as a figure who could peel away votes from Warren and Sanders, who both come from New England states, in the early primary state of New Hampshire.