Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren has announced she is planning to run for re-election 2024. It would be the third term for the 73-year old Massachusetts senator, who first took office in 2012.
“We’ve won some big victories for working families in Massachusetts and across the country, but there’s a lot more to do. So today I’m making it official: I’m running for re-election to keep up the fight,” Warren announced on Twitter.
Warren has become known for being a high-calibre liberal contender within the Democratic Party. Her aim, she says, is to end corruption in Washington, and make the economy work for the lower and middle classes.
Warren says that she first ran for Senate because she noticed that the system is rigged very much in favor of the rich and powerful, at the expense of everyone else.
“I won because Massachusetts voters know it, too. And now I’m running for Senate again because there’s a lot more we’ve got to do,” Warren said in a campaign video released Monday.
Her campaign ad on Twitter showed supporters singing her praises.
“Across Massachusetts, Elizabeth makes sure we have a choice,” one voter says in the video. “Elizabeth doesn’t [expletive] around. She’s always in our corner,” another says.
A failed 2020 Presidential contender, Warren’s initial hesitance to endorse the Biden-Harris administration for 2024 sparked speculation that she was planning another presidential campaign herself.
“I fully support the president’s and vice president’s re-election together and never intended to imply otherwise. They’re a terrific team with a strong record of delivering for working families,” she told GBH.
According to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, Warren’s campaign account amounted to nearly $2.5 million at the end of last year.
Her first win in the 2012 election saw her defeating incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown. A Harvard Law School professor at the time, Warren’s win made her the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts.
Then, in 2018, Warren was re-elected for a second term after a landslide victory against Republican candidate Geoff Diehl. Shortly after, she set out to run in the 2020 presidential primaries.
Warren’s blunt and outspoken style, while popular with some Democrat voters, proved not been enough to convince a wider majority. She dropped out of the presidential run after she failed to secure a win in any of the states that voted on Super Tuesday.
This included coming in third in the Democratic primary in her home state.
Warren previously claimed partial Native American ancestry, which due to her inability to provide evidence, had laid obstacles in her way during her campaign against Brown and again, during her bid for the presidency. She has stated that she first learned of her Cherokee and Delaware roots from stories her parents told her as a child.
After her loss in 2020, her focus shifted back to pushing reforms in the financial sector.
She joined Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) on a quest to rebuke a 2018 rollback of parts of the Dodd-Frank Act, which was enacted following the 2008 economic crash.
Her recent campaign video addressed a range of priority issues, ranging from the implementation of a “wealth tax” and imposing stricter rules on financial institutions, to more affordable child care, as well as the protection of coastal communities. Another focal point is the construction of what Warren refers to as “a 21st century transportation system across all of Massachusetts.”
To date, there is no indication of a potential challenger to Warren as the Democratic candidate. While many Democrats appear to be biding their time for now, Warren already has the backing of many high-profile Massachusetts Democrats including U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and fellow Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Edward Markey.
Markey has decided not to seek re-election after fending off a primary challenge from then-Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy in 2020.
Warren is currently serving on multiple congressional bodies, including the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Armed Services.
