Elizabeth Warren

A proven leader rebuilding the middle class

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a fearless consumer advocate who has made her life’s work the fight for middle class families, is serving her second term and running for reelection to continue representing the people of Massachusetts. Warren’s life “hasn’t followed a straight line,” she has said. She grew up in Oklahoma on what she describes as “the ragged edge of the middle class” in a family that nearly lost their house after her father suffered a heart attack. She left college to marry at 19, but had a second chance to earn her degree from a public college that cost $50 a semester. She achieved her dream of becoming a public school teacher, but lost her job while pregnant with her daughter. Warren enrolled in Rutgers Law School and graduated pregnant with her son, and soon returned to teaching. She met Bruce Mann, a fellow law professor, and they have been married since 1980. Warren taught law at schools across the country for the next 30 years, and focused her research on why working families go broke. She discovered that working families weren’t falling through the cracks — they were falling into traps. After Wall Street crashed our economy in 2008, she fought to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to protect people from getting tricked and scammed by big banks and corporations. After Senate Republicans vowed to block her nomination to serve as the CFPB’s first director, Warren went back home to Massachusetts and ran against one of them — and won. Her journey laid the foundation for the plans she has proposed and the change she has delivered, fighting to make sure everyone gets the same chances she got to succeed.

A fearless champion for women and families

Upon taking office, Sen. Warren quickly established herself as a courageous leader in the Senate. She is one of the nation’s leading progressive voices, fighting for big structural change that would transform our economy and rebuild the middle class. She helped secure billions in debt relief for students who were cheated by predatory, for-profit colleges, including thousands of Massachusetts students. She also helped push for President Biden’s historic plan to cancel up to $20,000 of federal student debt — a transformative step that will help tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents. Warren has also helped pass legislation to provide tens of billions of dollars in federal funding for child care and early learning, make hearing aids available over the counter, reduce out-of-pocket costs for high school students enrolled in career and technical education programs, and put over $6 billion dollars in federal funding towards the fight against the opioid epidemic. “Americans understand that the economic well-being of families is inextricably linked to democracy and to individual rights, even if too many cable news gurus do not,” she has said. “A majority of Americans know that abortion is a kitchen-table issue that is central to both health and economic security, not a distraction. Americans understand that prices are rising in part because of corporate greed, and want a government on their side. The 2022 midterms proved that Democrats can beat Republican extremism. Instead of capitulating to election deniers, we should keep fighting for working families — because when we fight for working people, we win.” 

A must-win fight for reelection

When she was teaching law in Texas, Warren got some mail from EMILYs List. She’s said that she remembers thinking, “That’s a good idea!” And so with a small check she became a member of the EMILYs List community — her very first political activity that went beyond voting. Years later, as a Harvard Law School professor, she had risen to national prominence and had written influential works on the financial pressures squeezing middle-class families, including two books with her daughter. As she considered launching a campaign for the U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent and Tea Party hero Scott Brown, EMILYs List helped her decide to run. Once she became a candidate, the EMILYs List community gave her our full support, helping power her successful campaign to become the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. We are proud to support her every step of the way as she continues her lifelong fight for women and families in Massachusetts and across the country. When Mitch McConnell, backed by the rest of the Senate Republicans, moved to censor her after she quoted a letter from Coretta Scott King during Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation, he said: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” No matter how hard extremists try to silence her, Warren will never, ever back down, and we are proud to support her must-win 2024 reelection campaign.