Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren
Joshua Qualls/Governor’s Press Office · Public domain · source
Name	Elizabeth Warren
Caption	United States Senator from Massachusetts
State	Massachusetts
Term start	January 3, 2013
Alongside	Ed Markey
Predecessor	Scott Brown
Office2	Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel
Term start2	November 25, 2008
Term end2	November 15, 2010
Predecessor2	Position established
Successor2	Ted Kaufman
Office3	Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Term start3	September 17, 2010
Term end3	August 1, 2011
President3	Barack Obama
Birth name	Elizabeth Ann Herring
Birth date	22 June 1949
Birth place	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Party	Democratic (1996–present)
Otherparty	Republican (before 1996)
Spouse	Bruce H. Mann, 1980
Education	George Washington University, University of Houston (BS), Rutgers University–Newark (JD)
Signature alt	Cursive signature

Elizabeth Warren is an American politician, legal scholar, and former academic serving as the senior United States senator from Massachusetts since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, she is a prominent progressive figure known for her advocacy on issues of economic justice, consumer protection, and wealth inequality. Prior to her election to the Senate, she was a professor of law and advised the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Early life and education

Elizabeth Ann Herring was born in Oklahoma City and raised in a middle-class family in Norman, Oklahoma. Her father worked as a maintenance man for Montgomery Ward and her mother worked at Sears. After graduating from Northwest Classen High School, she attended George Washington University on a debate scholarship before transferring to the University of Houston, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in speech pathology and audiology. She then enrolled at Rutgers Law School–Newark, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 1976.

Academic career

Warren began her academic career as a lecturer at Rutgers University–Newark before teaching at the University of Houston Law Center. She later became a full professor at the University of Texas School of Law and then the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was the only tenured law professor who had attended law school at a public institution. Her scholarship focused on bankruptcy law and the economics of the middle class, and she served as an adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission. In 1995, she was recruited to the Harvard Law School as the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law.

Political career

Her political career began in an advisory capacity when she served as chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program following the 2008 financial crisis. In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed her as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She decided to run for office in 2012, defeating incumbent Republican Scott Brown to become a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. She was re-elected in 2018 and launched a campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, where she was a leading progressive candidate before ending her bid in March 2020.

Political positions and public policy

Warren is a leading voice for progressive economic policies, famously advocating for a wealth tax through her proposed "Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act." She was a chief architect of the idea for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and has been a staunch critic of Wall Street practices. Her legislative work includes co-sponsoring the Green New Deal resolution, introducing the Accountable Capitalism Act, and championing universal child care and student loan cancellation. She serves on the Senate Banking Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Personal life

She married her high school sweetheart, Jim Warren, in 1968; they divorced a decade later. In 1980, she married law professor Bruce H. Mann, a legal historian she met while teaching at the University of Houston. She has two children from her first marriage, a daughter and a son. Warren has publicly discussed her family's ancestral claims to Native American heritage, which became a subject of political controversy. She identifies as a Methodist.

Electoral history

In the 2012 Senate election, she defeated Republican incumbent Scott Brown with 53.7% of the vote. She won re-election in the 2018 election, defeating Republican nominee Geoff Diehl with 60.3% of the vote. During the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, she won primary contests in several states including Oklahoma and Nevada, and finished third in the delegate count from her home state of Massachusetts before suspending her campaign.

Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:United States senators from Massachusetts Category:Harvard Law School faculty