Update, February 9, 2019: Sen. Elizabeth Warren has formally announced her 2020 presidential campaign.
Warren launched her bid at an event in Massachusetts with Rep. Joe Kennedy and Sen. Ed Markey. "This is the fight of our lives," she said in a speech, according to The Hill. "The fight to build an America where dreams are possible, an America that works for everyone. I am in that fight all the way."
This story was originally published on December 31, 2018.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has announced her exploratory committee to run for president in 2020, making her the first major candidate to enter the race. This committee will allow her to begin raising money for her campaign.
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The longtime Harvard Law professor turned Massachusetts Democratic Senator announced a campaign focused on her desire to protect America’s middle class; she has long been public with her disapproval of big banks and unregulated capitalism. She has also been vocal about her support of the #MeToo Movement and women’s rights. In her video announcing her exploratory launch committee for the presidency, these are a few of her platforms.
“In our country, if you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to take care of yourself and the people you love. That’s a fundamental promise of America. A promise that should be true for everyone,” she says. “I’ve spent my career getting to the bottom of why America’s promise works for some families, but others, who work just as hard, slip through the cracks into disaster.”
Warren is already familiar with the barbarous commentary of President, Donald Trump who has referred to her as “Pocahontas” and a “fraud” on multiple occasions. He has already announced his bid for re-election. According to The New York Times, Warren’s fellow party members questioned if making her DNA results public was playing right into his hands. The Cherokee Nation called her efforts to prove her heritage "inappropriate and wrong."
The 2020 presidential race is expected to be a crowded one. There are the anticipated candidates we already know such as former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. Many prospective candidates – more than three dozen considering Democratic bids coming from business leaders, senators, governors, and mayors – have not previously sought a role in the White House. History was made in the 2018 midterm elections with more women, people of color, and LGBTQ candidates winning races across the country.
13 months remain before the first primary votes will be cast in the Iowa caucus in one of the most highly anticipated and open races in recent history.