Photo: Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Elizabeth Warren is a Massachusetts senator known for her consumer advocacy and efforts to regulate big financial institutions. Her brainchild, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was created in 2011.
Key facts:
- Current position: Senator from Massachusetts — 6 years served
- Age: 69
- Born: Oklahoma City
- Undergraduate: University of Houston
- Date candidacy announced: Feb. 9, 2019
- % of votes in line with Trump, per FiveThirtyEight: 13.2%
- Previous roles: Law professor; member of Congressional Oversight Panel monitoring $700 billion TARP bank bailout program; special adviser for CFPB.
Her stance on key issues:
- Wealth tax: Proposed 2% tax on wealth exceeding $50 million and 3% tax on wealth above $1 billion.
- Green New Deal: Co-sponsor.
- College debt: Proposed eliminating $640 billion in student debt and free public college, funded by her wealth tax proposal, through executive action.
- Medicare For All: Co-sponsored Bernie Sanders' bill in 2017.
- "Economic patriotism:" Her plan for "creating and defending good American jobs" leans on green manufacturing and industrial policy for clean energy.
- Capitalism: Identifies as a "Democrat capitalist," rather than a "Democratic socialist," and told Pod Save America she sees "the value of markets ... if they have rules."
- Big Tech: Proposed breaking up Google, Facebook and Amazon, prohibiting companies with over $25 billion in revenue from acting as operators and users of a platform and installing regulators to break up already-closed mergers.
- Corporate tax: Proposed a 7% tax on companies' profits over $100 million.
- Marijuana: Co-sponsor of Cory Booker's Marijuana Justice Act to legalize weed federally.
- Electoral college: Supports replacing electoral college with a national popular vote.
- Presidential prosecution: Proposed letting the DOJ indict sitting presidents.
- Criminal justice: Proposed banning private prisons and repealing the 1994 crime bill.
- Public lands: Proposed requiring more electricity generation from renewable sources and ending drilling offshore and on public lands.
- Abortion: Proposed a 4-part plan to protect reproductive rights.
- Opioid crisis: Proposed a 10-year, $100 billion plan to fund first responders, public health departments and states for prevention and rehabilitation services.
- HBCUs: Proposed investing $50 billion in HBCUs.
- Climate change: Wants to require the Pentagon to reach net-zero carbon emissions on noncombat bases by 2030.
- Voting rights: Proposed mandates for federal elections to protect rights and security.
- Immigration: Wants to repeal law that criminalizes unauthorized border crossings.
- Foreign policy: Wants to expand the State Department and end granting ambassadorships to donors.
- Trade: Countries must meet specific standards as a precondition for any trade agreement.
- Private equity: Proposed a bill that would kill much of the leveraged buyout industry.
- Support for Native Americans: Looks to address issues ranging from economic development to restoring tribal sovereignty.
- Gun reform: Calls for federal assault weapons ban and universal background checks.
- Clean energy: Add additional $1 trillion onto Gov. Jay Inslee's 10-year plan to achieve 100% clean energy.
- Environmental Justice: Plans to address the disproportionate pollution burdens that the poor and communities of color often face.
- "Blue new deal": Pushing for oceanic plans to speed up offshore wind projects, expand marine sanctuaries, and bolster use of oceans to soak up carbon emissions.
Key criticism:
- Has taken heat for claims of her Native American heritage. Commissioned a DNA test to prove she had Cherokee ancestry, and has since apologized.
1 fun thing:
- She was a state debate champion in Oklahoma and graduated high school at 16.
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