Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren — a fierce critic of Donald Trump — on Monday took a major step towards a likely run for president, seeking to upset the incumbent Republican in 2020.
The 69-year-old Warren, who has represented Massachusetts in the Senate since 2013, is a progressive Democrat. She said she was launching an exploratory committee for president, which would help her raise funds early in the campaign cycle.
“America’s middle class is under attack,” she said in a video message on Twitter. “How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie, and they enlisted politicians to cut them a fatter slice.”
“Every person in America should be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules, & take care of themselves & the people they love,” Warren said. “That’s what I’m fighting for, & that’s why I’m launching an exploratory committee for president. I need you with me.”
Warren has been a frequent sparring partner for Trump, who has repeatedly mocked her claim to have Native American heritage by calling her “Pocahontas,” which has been taken as a slur.
Pocahontas was a Native American woman who lived in the 17th century and is known in U.S. history for her encounters with colonial settlers in Jamestown, in what is now Virginia.
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Although Donald Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 by nearly 3 million votes, his victories in these three states helped him secure the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the presidency over Hillary Clinton.
Clinton’s inability to win Midwestern states like Michigan, which she lost by less than 12,000 votes, proved to be her downfall. The last time a Republican presidential candidate won Michigan was George H.W. Bush in 1988.
Winning these three states would have put Clinton at 278 electoral votes compared to Donald Trump’s 260.
William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and former deputy assistant of domestic policy for President Bill Clinton, believes that Hillary’s biggest mistake in 2016 was not focusing enough resources in the Midwest.