My first vote for president came in 1992. My first campaign to support a president came in 2004. I have campaigned for the Democratic nominee in every election since then.
In all those elections, I have never been more excited about a presidential candidate than I am about Elizabeth Warren. I will be voting for her in the upcoming primary. Here are ten reasons why.
- She has great plans.
Warren takes governing seriously. She has identified a long list of challenges facing America and the world, including challenges many of us overlook. She has laid out clear, compelling plans to address these challenges. She has told us how she will pay for them and how she will achieve them. Candidates often speak in generalities, campaigning in poetry and assuming voters don’t know or care what prose even means. But the details matter. They are the difference between a good bill and a great bill, between an effective agency and a toothless one, between a fair budget and one filled with pork. “I’ve got a plan for that” may be a slogan, but it also happens to be true. - I agree with her theory of change.
When Warren was fighting then-Sen. Joe Biden’s efforts to make it easier for credit card companies to exploit consumers, she experienced first hand the power lobbyists exerted over Congress and the White House. Since then she has made it clear that the only way for Democrats to pass an agenda that challenges the status quo is first to use their power to pass an anti-corruption agenda. As long as the lobbyists control Congress, and a minority can block reform, the best of plans don’t stand a chance. That’s why Warren’s theory of change sees these reforms as a prerequisite. Large rallies in Kentucky won’t move Mitch McConnell. Ending the filibuster will. - She is a brilliant communicator and an effective advocate.
Go on YouTube and google “Elizabeth Warren.” Spend some time watching videos of her testifying before Congress, questioning witnesses at Congressional hearings, answering questions at Town Halls, kneecapping Mike Bloomberg at a debate, or standing up to clueless pundits. She’s knowledgable, quick on her feet, folksy, and often funny. These skills helped her build momentum behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, forced banks like Wells Fargo to change their policies and fire their CEO, and even compelled Bloomberg to end his company’s policy of seeking NDAs when settling sexual harassment cases. Warren gets shit done. - Justice demands we support progressive women candidates.
I believe that when faced with a choice between two candidates who have similar plans and qualifications, justice requires us to support the candidate from a community that has been underrepresented in public office. I do not understand how this principle has been so completely abandoned this cycle by millions of people who identify as progressive or left. A woman has never been president. Too few women have been elected governor or to the Senate. How will that ever change if we refuse to vote for great female candidates when they run for office? Representation matters. It’s long past time we elected a progressive woman as president. - She can unite many of the essential constituencies in the Democratic coalition.
Warren is well liked by a wide range of communities that make up the Democratic coalition and disliked by relatively few. The nominee will need enthusiasm from all of its bases (progressives, POC, young people, unmarried women, Jews, Muslims, union members, immigrants, the highly educated, non-religious). After what is likely to be a highly divisive primary, the ability to bridge those divides and heal any open wounds will be critical to winning in November. In this regard, being the least unpopular may be more important than being the most popular. - She listens and keeps an open mind.
It is an article of faith among some Democratic voters that Warren is less trustworthy because she hasn’t been progressive her whole life. While I appreciate consistency, I also appreciate growth. Warren was raised in conservative Oklahoma and bought into many conservative myths until she became an expert in bankruptcy law. She changed her mind and took on the financial industry with the zeal of a convert. Dogmatism is not a progressive value. Listening to new information, making decisions based on evidence… both are qualities we desperately need in the White House. - Her race, gender, and class analysis are the best in the field.
Warren’s understanding of our rigged financial system and the corporate capture of government are second to none. She sees monopolies, understands why they are so damaging, and wants the government to break them up. Watch her predict the mortgage crisis years in advance. All of this has been her life’s work. Yet she has demonstrated during this campaign a genuine understanding of how racism and sexism — white supremacy and patriarchy — are baked into American institutions, from government to media to cultural to economic to educational. A great example of this mastery is her remarks at She The People. - She understands how to wield the power of the executive.
The problem facing most non-incumbent candidates for president is that they are too easily dismissed as not having the right experience. Senators and governors, the two most common jobs of presidential candidates, wield power very differently than a president, either because of the scale or scope of their work and authority. But Warren’s unique experience creating the CFPB demonstrated her understanding of how the presidency, at its best, can work on behalf of regular Americans. We see this again in the plans she has drawn up, in which she uses a wide range of tools to implement an ambitious agenda. - Her life story and personal experiences are inspiring and relatable.
Warren grew up in a working class family. She had a difficult childhood. She married early, had a kid early, and divorced early. Then through a lot of hard work and some good luck, she became a lawyer, then a law professor, and made her way to the best law school in the country. This is a Bill Clinton-esque journey. And like Bill Clinton, she is able to tell stories about her struggles in a way that both says something about who she is and explains why she supports the policies she does. Don’t believe me? Watch her tell this story about toasters. - None of the other candidates are better.
Elections are about choices. We don’t get to choose who runs, but we do get to choose which person running we think is best for the job. Warren being great isn’t enough. She needs to be the best from among the available options. For me, Biden, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, and Klobuchar all have inferior plans, so I’m not interested in any of them. Sanders, on the other hand, has a platform that is pretty close to Warren’s in most respects. In one or two respects, it’s even better. His candidacy is exciting in many ways, so i understand the enthusiasm from his supporters. But I don’t think Sanders is a better candidate than Warren, and I think she’d make a better president. His theory of change is untested and risky. He is dogmatic as a leftist in ways I think may be unhelpful. His race and gender analysis comes across as forced rather than intuitive. He is reflexively combative. He is unskilled as a storyteller. He has developed a cult of personality that reinforces a very traditional, “great man” theory of leadership. He is running explicitly against the party he seeks to lead. His greatest strength, and it is no small thing, is the diverse and powerful movement he has build around his candidacy. But for me, that’s not enough.
If after reading all of this you agree that Warren would be a great president, but aren’t sure if she can win, because we live in a sexist society and Hillary lost and patriarchy is powerful… considering taking your cue from my favorite piece of Warren swag:
