Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren       (academic, politician)
Born	Elizabeth Ann Herring 22 June 1949 Oklahoma City
Alma mater	George Washington University, University of Houston, Rutgers University, Newark
Religion	United Methodism
Children	Amelia Alexander
Spouse	Jim Warren
Party	Democratic
United States Senator from Massachusetts In office 3 January 2013 - Present  Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau In office September 17, 2010 - August 1, 2011  Chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel In office November 25, 2008 - November 15, 2010  Vice Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus In office January 3, 2017 Serving with Mark Warner - Present Preceded by Charles Schumer"strong class="error">Error: Invalid time." contains an extrinsic dash or other characters that are invalid for a date interpretation.Charles Schumer  Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel In office November 25, 2008 - November 15, 2010

Elizabeth Warren (born 22 June 1949) is an American academic and politician who is the senior US Senator from Massachusetts.

She was frequently mentioned by political pundits as a potential 2016 presidential candidate but has repeatedly stated that she has no intention of running for president.

In March 2016, Senator Warren was asked whether she thinks Bernie Sanders should drop out of the race and clear the path for Hillary Clinton. She replied:

"He’s out there. He fights from the heart. This is who Bernie is. He has put the right issues on the table both for the Democratic Party and for the country in general so I’m still cheering Bernie on."

Red to Blue

Elizabeth Warren is a former professor of law at Harvard, specialising in personal finance and bankruptcy. She turned politician because, in spite of beginning life as a Republican she became disenchanted with the Party and began voting Democrat in 1995, when she saw the effects they had on the untouchable ‘markets’.

Senator Warren is largely responsible for the creation of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; a consumer protection Act establishing a new regulator that became law under President Obama in 2012. She wanted to lead the new Bureau, but was strongly opposed by Republicans and by ‘business’, who feared she would be a highly articulate and formidable regulator. She didn’t get the job. Her response was to run for the Senate as a Democrat.

She fought and decisively won the Massachusetts Senate seat in 2012, against the Republican incumbent; the first woman Senator to represent the State. The New York Times reported at the time that the US Chamber of Commerce said that “no other candidate in 2012 represents a greater threat to free enterprise than Professor Warren”. In spite of the hostility of corporate America, she raised more money for her campaign than any other candidate in America.

Social contract

On the campaign trail in Massachusetts in September 2011 she made a speech in which she made the following statement, that goes to the root of the problem of the disconnect between corporate America and the people; and it applies equally here in Britain:

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea? God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along” (quoted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly).

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