Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced that she is launching an exploratory committee for a 2020 presidential bid Monday.
Warren, who has long been rumored to be a top candidate for the Democratic nomination, announced her bid in a video discussing her Oklahoma working class roots and warning that “Americans middle class is under attack” from “billionaires and corporations who wanted more of the pie.”
"Corruption is poisoning our democracy," Warren says in the video. "Politicians look the other way while big insurance companies deny patients life-saving coverage, while big banks rip off consumers and while big oil companies destroy this planet."
"Families of color face a path that is steeper and rockier, a path made even harder by the impact of generations of discrimination," she added.
By launching her exploratory committee 13 months before the Iowa caucuses, Warren can get a head start on raising money for her presidential bid, which CNN reports is not expected to accept contributions from billionaire-funded super PACs.
Warren has quietly been making moves:
“Since her re-election to the Senate in November, Warren has made hundreds of calls to political grassroots leaders in the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, the source said. She is expected to hit the campaign trail later this week if no votes are scheduled to end the government shutdown,” CNN reported. “Warren's staff members are also having discussions with operatives in those states and are in the process of searching for campaign office space in the Boston area, the expected location of her presidential campaign headquarters.”
Warren trails in the polls:
According to a Des Moines Register poll, Warren trails Joe Biden (32%), Bernie Sanders (19%), and Beto O’Rourke (11%) among Iowa caucusgoers. Eight percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers said they support Warren, which is roughly where she stands in national polls.
Warren is a staunch progressive:
"Warren is a supporter of Medicare for All legislation introduced by Sanders and also has an ambitious set of her own legislative proposals starting with a sweeping anti-corruption bill, a plan to give workers voices on the boards of large companies, a major investment in housing affordability, and a plan to create a public option for generic drug manufacturing," Vox reported. "As a professor at Harvard Law School she authored an influential 2007 article calling for the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She came to Washington first as an aide to congressional Democrats doing oversight of the Bush-era bank bailout program, and then shaping the creation of the CFPB on both the legislative and administrative fronts. Later, she was recruited by Massachusetts Democrats to successfully challenge Scott Brown."
