Elizabeth Warren announces bid to run for President in 2020

Before ringing in the new year, Senator Elizabeth Warren threw her hat into the ring on Monday and announced her bid to run for President in 2020, The New York Times reports.

The Massachusetts Democrat is the first of what’s expected to be a wave of declared candidates to come out and kick off the 2020 presidential season by declaring their intent to enter the fight to remove President Donald Trump from office.

Warren sent an 8:30 am email to supporters on New Year’s Eve, outlining her intent. And Warren released a video, accompanying her announcement. Warren announced her intent to form an exploratory committee so she can begin fundraising and fill vital staff positions before her formal kickoff.

—Rutgers’ study links media images to how Black men are negatively viewed by police—

“How did we get here?” Ms. Warren said in her announcement video. “Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie, and they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice.”

“I’ve spent my career getting to the bottom of why America’s promise works for some families, but others, who work just as hard, slip through the cracks into disaster,” she said in the video. “And what I’ve found is terrifying: these aren’t cracks families are falling into, they’re traps. America’s middle class is under attack.”

“But this dark path doesn’t have to be our future,” she continued. “We can make our democracy work for all of us. We can make our economy work for all of us.”

—Trump continues tantrum over border wall, uses ‘wall’ at Obama’s DC home as excuse for funding—

Ahead of the announcement, the AP reported that Warren set out to make connections with the African American community and visited Morgan State University in Baltimore Friday, marking her third trip this year to a historically black college or university. It follows her widely panned October release of a DNA test meant to bolster her claim to Native American heritage. Her speech Friday offered an opportunity to regain her footing.

“I’m not a person of color,” Warren said. “And I haven’t lived your life or experienced anything like the subtle prejudice, or more overt harm, that you may have experienced just because of the color of your skin. Rules matter, and our government — not just individuals within the government, but the government itself — has systematically discriminated against black people in this country.”

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand are also reportedly preparing for early launches.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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