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Elizabeth Warren To Announce Senate Run Wednesday
WASHINGTON -- Consumer advocate and former White House official Elizabeth Warren will announce on Wednesday that she is running for the United States Senate seat currently held by Scott Brown (R-Mass.), a close source tells The Huffington Post.
Consumer advocate and former White House official Elizabeth Warren will announce on Wednesday that she is running for the United States Senate seat currently held by Scott Brown (R-Mass.), a close source tells The Huffington Post. The announcement will not come as a surprise, as Warren has spent the last few weeks traveling across Massachusetts and speaking at several high-profile political events as part of a statewide listening tour. Still, her formal entrance into the race is likely to be cheered by progressives and national Democrats alike, as Warren is both beloved by the base and represents one of the party's best chances to unseat Brown.
“The pressures on middle class families are worse than ever, but it is the big corporations that get their way in Washington,” said Warren, in a statement obtained by The Huffington Post. “I want to change that. I will work my heart out to earn the trust of the people of Massachusetts.”
The consumer advocate will be spending the day tomorrow greeting commuters in Boston, before travelling to New Bedford, Framingham, Worcester, and Springfield. She has already picked up an endorsement from a prominent nurses union in the state and has been informally courted by other unions.
National Democrats are wary of saying much, if anything, about her candidacy, lest they give off the impression that they are meddling in a state primary. But it has been apparent for some time now that party officials view her as a more formidable candidate than Brown's other prospective challengers, including Newton Mayor Setti Warren, social entrepreneur Alan Khazei and state Rep. Thomas Conroy.
One recent poll had Warren trailing Brown by just nine percentage points, with more than a year remaining before the election.
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43 Comments so far
Show AllI live in MA and I'd vote for her in a heartbeat.
I live in TX and I'd drive to MA to vote for her.
Yeah, I would, too.
I live in the Bronx and I'll take a ride up to vote that warrior in any day.
Forget the Senate--she should challenge Obama in a primary!
I agree. The senate has no real function or power in today's world. Only the "unitary executive" presidency matters. Unfortunately, we either will get Obama again when the "liberals" rally, or a racist republican. Either way, we will have endless war, but no one really cares in the USA, not even most of the CD posters, because only brown people far far away die.
They gotta war for oil, a war for gold
A war for money and a war for souls
A war on terror, a war on drugs
A war on kindness, a war on hugs
A war on birds and a war on bees
They gotta war on hippies tryin' to save the trees
A war with jets and a war with missiles
A war with high-seated, government officials
Wall street war, on high finace
A war on people who just love to dance
A war on music a war on speech
A war on teachers and things they teach
A war for the last 500 years
War's just messin' up the atmospere (true)
A war on muslims, a war on jews
a war on christians and hindus
a whole lotta people sayin' kill them all
They gotta war on Mumia Abu Jamal
The war on pot, is a war that's failed
A war that's fillin' up the nation's jails
World war 1, 2, 3, and 4 (uh huh)
Chemical weapons, biological war
Bush war 1 and bush war 2
They gotta war for me they gotta war for you
Michael Franti and Spearhead, We Don't Stop
Perpetual pessimism is better than disappointment, eh? You're probably correct. At best we will only have far better representation from Mass.
I believe that you are correct in that we could all "guess." I do know that I would have been very unhappy with a Palin only a heartbeat away, however. I also assume that you and most everyone understands that a true liberal still has zero chance of being elected President unless a solid conservative runs 3rd party and splits the vote. In such a case, the liberal would at least have a snowballs chance in hell.
i ♥ BigBrother, Would be nice if we had some way to get her positions on these and other issues important to progressives now, instead of "giving her a chance to define herself." Anyone like her already knows her views. Would also be nice if progressives could engage her in discussion now. As long as the MSM runs the show, none of that will happen.
you may be right... the relentless machine may wear her down as it slowly grinds itself down.. on the other hand, if you've ever seen her lecture she very adeptly points out that much of the reason we are where we are at as a country is because of huge % increases in both health care and housing costs. She just might be a single payer advocate after all. She so very calmly and expertly describes the coming apocalypse and its causes.
"One might expect her to be silent (for fear of isolating herself from her party) on issues like torture, prosecutions of Bush admin criminals, the War on Terror, & the legality of the Libya war.
Indeed she already defined herself (showed her willingness to remain silent) on the torture issue, when she chose not to sign the letter to Obama about the tortureous treatment of Bradley Manning -- a letter that was signed by many of her colleagues at Harvard law school and by many many legal scholars around the country.
Either Warren has no issue with the treatment of Manning (which speaks volumes about her ethics -- or lack thereof) or she simply does not wish to rock the boat and/or offend her "good friend" Obama (which also tells us something about her).
but of course, she will get elected. After all, it's MA we are talking about where the vast majority of voters just pull the "Democrat" lever (I think it's in their genes) and don't even bother reading the name on the ballot (except when they vote for governor, that is)
PS I used to live in Massachusetts and tried to warn the people I knew at the time about the Mittster -- to no avail. "But he's such a successful businessman, He helped finance Staples, you know" was the typical response I received. They didn't even care that he was trying to hedge his politicial bets by simultaneously claiming residency in both MA and Utah, where he owns houses. or that he made his millions at the expense of workers at the companies that he was "turning around" (by firing them).
PPS I also lived in Utah for 15 years (where everyone pulled the Republican lever) so i have a bit of perspective on Romney that many folks may not have.
Thanks for the information, Jimbo.
"Elizabeth Warren To Announce Senate Run Wednesday "
Good luck to her! - Let's hope her fine integrity survives the campaign, and that the campaign succeeds.
Slogan: "Warren for the Senate-warren"?
You go, girl and Godspeed.
Awesome!! I will contribute to her campaign but I dont live in Mass. I live in Md. but want to see her get elected to the Senate.
they're lying in wait for her, daggers drawn. They'll pound her with "gotcha" questions about matters totally unrelated to banks, credit, mortgages and her other areas of expertise. They'll back her into a corner on Israel ("do you stand with Israel?"), terrorism and state security (do you wholeheartedly support the Patriot Act?"), banking ("are you a socialist?"), climate change ("should corrupt climate scientists who falsified data be fired and their research withdrawn and not taught?"). Then they'll come back to the banks ("Do you agree that tax breaks create jobs?"). And God help her if she ever smoked pot in college ("do you support tough anti-drug laws and stiff sentences - you sniveling liberal hypocrite?")
If she strays on any of this dogma she will be hounded mercilessly by the media, by Repubs and Blue Dogs and behind them, by the corporatocratic state. Poor woman! I wish her well but I wonder if she knows what she is in for. Politics in present day America is a gladiator fight with buckets of flaming bullshit instead of swords and hand weapons. There will be lots of blood.
You're not from Massachusetts, are you?
Mass politics don't really operate in the way that you describe. That's more a national style, Mass is very local.
She'll win if she and her supporters have the shoe leather.
Even once bitten twice shy Obama voters might still pull her lever.
Sometimes the introduction of a smart and principled Senator can push an issue, like Bank regulation, in a way that benefits a lot of people.
She's not going to save this sinking ship, but I hope she gets elected anyway.
I fear that until Scott Brown is unseated, Kennedy's fat dead ass will never rest.
nope, not from MA. don't know if you're right, but if I had any hope, I'd hope you were right. My point, however, was that politics in America is warfare by other means. The Repubs understand this implicitly and the Dems seem wierdly oblivious to it. Warren has serious intellectual heft. In a sane world this would work in her favor and ours, but in national politics (a Senate race in MA is national politics - where did Scott Brown get his money?), intellect is to some extent a flaw, a hindrance and a source of suspicion. Are MA voters different? It's not like America really has regional cultures anymore. The more distinct the regional culture used to be, the more frenetic and all-pervasive the rush to assimilate into the bland, yet poisonous, all-American corporate culture. Is MA different in that respect too?
I see your point. US cultue is increasingly homogenized, but Mass and New England in general (outside the NYC Conn suburbs) has its own culture. I also think voters are less taken in by the TV ads. Brown won because Mass voters were mostly against Obamacare. They had already experienced its forerunner Romneycare and they didn't like it. Also Mass is a highly unionized state and unionists were furious that Obama agreed to tax their employer provide health plans.
This time around I predict that they will embrace Warren because of her strong pro consumer stands and because she is a very personable individual unlike Brwon's last opponent.
I predict that Warren will win Mass., since its mainly a democratic voting state, and because Scott B was just a reactionary vote against Obama's Healthcare plan. Mass (or should I say metro Boston area, where the majority of voters live) likes the brainy / intellectual candidates who lean a little left, but not too far left.
She will kick Brown's butt. It must have been a DLC decision to freeze out Markey the last time. But, fear not about Liz; she's not only smart and compassionate, but tough enough to handle the crap. Progressives and independents are hungry (starving) for someone to believe in.
Call me crazy, but the two politicians of the future are Liz and Matt Damon. No, I don't live in Massachusetts.
I thought that Warren was from OK, not MA. Running as a MA Democrat is too easy but I'm not so sure she'll get far running and being a senator as a Democrat. She could consider switching from Democratic to Green once elected and join Sanders.
And what are her position on progressive policies? I can name plenty of Democrats that have good stances on a couple policies but they are far from progessive. Warren has been testing the waters to run for the Senate and has yet to broadly spell out her position on policies. And why so many so-called progressives commentators on CD supporting her without knowing her position? That doesn't sound progressive. People voted for Obama on similar blind faith.
We know she is smart and cooperative. But there is so much we do not know. Wars? Jobs? Civil liberties? Green energy? Wall Street? Social Security? Medical care? What does she think and how hard will she fight? She needs to say. We need to know.
She just is beginning to run so you may find out.
Hope so. Hope careerism and expediency does not win out over the compassion and intelligence she has exhibited in the past.
If she continues to run as a Democrat instead of a third party candidate such as Green Party, then all I see is another Feingold at best. She hasn't said anything about keeping it to two terms at the most as senator but if she makes such a pledge, then maybe not all hope is lost.
Standing alone on the Warren Commission.
Watching Elizabeth be seduced by daily Beltway Masturbation since 2009 has been painful to observe. She is so vulnerable to flattery that she believes the absurd capabilities people ascribe to her, and buys into their impossible wishes and expectations. [Remove thumb from mouth] Lizbeth fix it. [Reinsert thumb.]
By 2010 jerks were already manufacturing =Elizabeth Warren for President = T-shirts. She fails to realize that this is only symbolic of what kind of shallow, surrealistic country this has become. I seem to recall T-shirts emblazoned =Bernard Goetz for President=.
This is not to say that she would not make a good Senator. It's to say that good Senators are in large part responsible for the unsolvable mess we're in. The call to political service should come in the late 30s to early 40s.
Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
Trylon
This submission has six carriage returns and I am sick and tired of the glitch in the word processing software that does not recognize them.
Trylon, instead of a (carriage) return, insert the symbols < br > < br >, but without the spaces on either side of each "br," "<," and ">" (if I had written it without the spaces, it wouldn't appear in the comment).
Elizabeth Warren is a failure.
Her chief claim to fame was the idea of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
What she set up (while an insider at the white house) may be called the CFPB, but it is only a phony agency which gives advice to consumers and it is under the control of the people who it is supposed to watch. It is a ruse to be used as PR and to protect the corrupt financial schemers.
It has no teeth.
For this failure, Warren is being rewarded with a membership in the Senate Clubhouse.
There is nothing to celebrate.
Scott Brown has refused to hold town meetings or by and large talk with "his constituents." So after his brief career in kissing Koch Brothers ass, watch him pull out the flannel shirts and his regular guy pick-up truck again real soon. He has explicitly said that there's nothing wrong with the economy that a free business hand won't fix, and that that's the only solution. Yeah, right. Tax cuts and deregulation. Frickin' moron. Can't wait to see the door hit his ass on the way out. Meanwhile I just hope that the DNC doesn't turn Warren's brains and backbone into corporate mush like the rest of them.
Jack 37:
In September 2010, he also voted against Senate Bill S. 3816 (Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act).
This is the same guy who ran on a platform of creating jobs. I also can't wait to see the door hit is ass on the way out!
Warren is feared by Repugs. The Repugs have done everything possible to stop her and her creation of the CFPB. And Repugs will do everything they can to defeat Warren's election as Senator, including using trolls to plant lies on sites like Common Dreams. These trolls pretend to be progressives so readers will think the negative comments are coming from the left. . The Koch brothers are bankrolling these internet trolls to infiltrate internet comment sites and sabotage real progressives.
It does seem that way.
There is no perfect person and politicians are no exception. Maybe because those who only talk negative never seem to have anyone in mind who has a chance.
That is their right, but it does get BORING.
So far, I like her and I will give her a chance and she does have a chance which is exceptional these days.
No question about the trolls. But they're not only coming from the republican side; the democrats are quite capable of making sure there we read 'defend the president' comments. I often think this when reading comments in the NYTimes when an article dares to mention dissatisfaction with the president. Though the good news is how outnumbered the trolls are, even in the paper of record.
I had no idea the Koch Bros. were paying agents provocateurs to stir up trouble on lefty sites like CD. I didn't think we were important enough to deserve their attention.Now I don't feel so powerless.
Considering the man she could (assuming Elizabeth Warren wins the Democratic primary) go up against, Scott Brown, is the Tea Baggers first significant electoral victory (in the special election to replace the deceased Ted Kennedy); it would be quite ironic if she is able to eject the former male model from the Senate.
I wish my car could sport a bumper sticker, "Warren in 2012," but I'll settle for the Senate. Go, Ms. Warren, go!
the Senate is a criminal organization...
She should reconsider party affiliation and run as an Independent. The D's are almost as toxic as the R's.
Boy what a bunch of hooie from the right. Ms Warren did as well as anyone could with the party of no filibustrering and voting down every Dem proposal.
I can only hope that the righties come to regret forcing her out of the agency she developed and making it possible for her to advance a more progressive agenda.