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Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senator of Massachusetts, has announced her likely candidacy for the 2020 U.S. presidential race.

Who is Elizabeth Warren?

• Elizabeth Warren is a Harvard graduated consumer advocate.
• She was a law professor for more than 30 years.
• She taught courses on commercial law, contracts, and bankruptcy.
• She was a former member of Republican Party and changed her affiliation to Democratic Party in 1996.
• She stated that the Republican Party was tilting the playing field in favor of Wall Street.
• She was elected to the United States Senate from the state of Massachusetts in 2012.
• She is an expert on bankruptcy and the financial pressures facing middle class families.
• She is widely credited for the original thinking and political courage that led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
• In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, she served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
• Her independent and tireless efforts to protect taxpayers and to hold Wall Street accountable during the post financial crisis were lauded.

What are her stands on different issues?

• Elizabeth Warren favors abortion and Planned Parenthood.
• She is a critic of crypto-currency.
• She has been in the forefront of the student debt crisis to save the students from the vicious debt cycle.
• She is also a critic of the present US President Mr. Trump.
• She also favors legalizing marijuana so that it will reduce the opioid deaths.
• She supported Obama’s Immigration reform and also supported the DREAMS at which gave a life for the immigrants children.

What challenges she might face in the coming presidential race?

• First, the general expectation is that the field for the Democratic nomination will widen considerably over through 2019.
• It means that more than three dozen Democratic candidates-in-the-making are said to be considering joining the race for presidential election.
• For instance senators such as Kamala Harris of California or Cory Booker of New Jersey who hold stronger appeal with millennial voters and people of color will be a tough competitor for the job.
• Second, it is hard to predict how Ms. Warren will fare against Democratic socialist candidate Bernie Sanders, or Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
• Both of them are economic populists who could hypothetically cut into her share of voters of a similar ideological persuasion.
• Finally, the risk of pursuing a populist theme from the centre-left of the political spectrum is that she would be an easy target for conservatives.
• They may deride her as an out-of-touch liberal academic and a threat to free enterprise.
• However as a candidate for the nation’s highest office, Ms. Warren’s ideology framework is set.

Source: The Hindu