TEHRAN, Feb 10 - Democrat Elizabeth Warren officially kicked off her 2020 White House run Saturday with a full-throated pledge to defend working Americans, unbowed by a row over her Native American ancestry that has threatened to nip her campaign in the bud.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The Massachusetts senator -- who had announced her intention to run on New Year's Eve -- is among the highest-profile of the growing pool of Democrats hoping to unseat President Donald Trump in 2020.
The Democratic field is already the party's most diverse ever -- in gender, age and ethnic background -- and one of its more progressive. It includes several well-known women lawmakers, with Senator Amy Klobuchar expected to join their numbers on Sunday.
Warren's past battles with Wall Street have brought her a large following, and her campaign team has drawn the grudging respect of its rivals. Hoping to ride the momentum of her Lawrence speech, she heads next to early-voting Iowa and New Hampshire, followed by five other states.
The 69-year-old senator has made the protection of middle-class rights the central pillar of her political message.
She pointed to her own rise from humble origins -- the daughter of a janitor, she started her schooling in a $50-a-semester community college and ended up teaching law at Harvard -- arguing that she can help bring a revival of the American Dream.
Warren tried in her speech to appeal to a broad ethnic coalition, saying, "We must not allow those with power to weaponize hatred and bigotry to divide us."
She called for "big, structural change" in America that would reach beyond new US leadership -- though she called the Trump administration "the most corrupt in living memory."
Warren said she would press for steeper taxes on the rich, strong anti-corruption legislation, curbs on lobbyists and a defense of the climate. She also supports universal health care.
Source: AFP
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