Meet Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren

Born in Oklahoma to a working class family, Elizabeth Warren has the childhood experiences of the ordinary American whose family is struggling from paycheck to paycheck.  She understands what middle class Americans  have been going through for the longest time and in her gut has the motivation to help people.

Her first marriage was to her high school sweetheart, Jim Warren.   Shortly after marriage, she received a Bachelor of Science degree in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Houston.

A couple of years after having her first child, she enrolled in Rutgers Law school where she received her Law Degree while pregnant with her second child.

The Warrens divorced and two years later Elizabeth married Bruce Mann but retained her last name from her first marriage.

Prior to her service in elected office, Elizabeth has been a public school teacher, a lawyer and a law professor at various Universities including U of Pennsylvania and Harvard.  Law and economics has been her focus area in the private sector.  She is a published author with eleven books to her credit.  She was a highly influential law professor and is the most cited scholar in the field of bankruptcy and commercial law during the time she was in that role.

She is a former FDIC Advisory Committee member and a member of the national Bankruptcy Conference.  She was a vice president of the American Law Institute.  

During the 2007 economic recession, she was appointed to chair the Congressional Oversight Panel to oversee implementing the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.  She was an early advocate of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and was assigned by President Obama to setup the CFPB. 

Warren had been a long time conservative and registered Republican, but in 1995 began to vote Democrat because she started realizing that the Republican Party no longer was "principled in its conservative approach to economics and to markets" and instead was favoring the rich and large corporations at the expense of middle-class Americans.

Elizabeth won her Senate seat in the 2012 election win against Republican Scott Brown, becoming the first woman Senator in Massachusetts history.  At the 2012 Democratic national Convention she gave a speech that explained her beliefs as a champion of the middle class.  She ran for re-election to the Senate in 2018 and won over the Republican by 60% to 36%.  As Senator she has been assigned to the Committee on Armed Services, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Special Committee on Aging.

Since announcing her candidacy for President, Elizabeth Warren has been developing her important focus areas and policies she will pursue as President.  Her top priorities are: 

• Strengthening Democracy
• Rebuilding the Middle Class
• Equal Justice Under Law
• Ending Washington Corruption
• A Foreign Policy for All

She wants to strengthen democracy by ensuring voting rights are not suppressed and by eliminating gerrymandering. She wants to ensure America fights back appropriately when foreign governments attack our elections.  She wants to hold Americans in power accountable for divisive talk.

She wants to rebuild the middle class by building Unions.  She wants workers to elect 40% of the Corporate board.  She wants antitrust enforcement.  She wants to stop the give-aways to the rich and ensure they pay their fair share.  She wants to enact an ultra-millionaires tax on the 75,000 richest people in America.  She is for green manufacturing, clean energy, affordable housing and wants to fight for veterans and service members.  She advocates for Medicare for all and promises that she has a plan to accomplish it without raising middle class taxes.  She wants to create great public schools and refurbish the public school system.

She'll fight for equal justice under law.  She knows there are two legal systems; one for the rich and one for the rest of us.  She will fight to change this.  Criminal Justice reform must make the punishments for laws fair and equal for everyone.  She is for legalizing marijuana.  She wants to ban private prisons.  She'll lead a new commitment to prosecuting giant corporations and their leaders when they cheat customers, stomp out competition or rob workers.  

She'll fight for ending Washington Corruption.  Corruption in Washington, DC makes government work for the rich but fails the rest of America.  She wants to put political and economic power back into the hands of the people.  She wants to remove big money from politics by overturning Citizens United.  She wants no more lobbying, PACS or SuperPACS.  She wants to eliminate the unfair advantage that corporate America gets when high level federal employees go to work as lobbyists for Corporate America after their federal jobs end. 

She'll fight for a foreign policy for all that serves all people and not just the wealthy.  She is against Trump's NAFTA II trade policies unless it produces a better deal for Americans.  She advocates for people over corporate profits.  She is in favor of cutting the military budget to a reasonable level to end the stranglehold defense contractors have on our military policy.  She wants to reinvest in diplomacy and stand with our allies to advance our shared interests, something that Trump has directed us away from. She is an advocate for cybersecurity and fighting climate change.

I can't go into the details here but it will be important for you to follow the debates and Elizabeth Warren's rallies during the campaign.  She explains her policies best when you hear her speak.  In my opinion, Elizabeth Warren has a very good chance to be the Democratic nominee.