Elizabeth Warren, the former law school professor and senator from Oklahoma, is a self-styled progressive in the running for the Democratic presidential nomination, vying with Bernie Sanders as the left-wing candidate of choice.
A recent dispute between the two marked a significant turning point in a campaign that has generally been characterised by genial differences. Last month Warren claimed Sanders had told her during a private meeting two years ago that he did not think a woman could win the White House. Sanders has denied the claim, with a senior Sanders adviser saying “those conversations can sometimes get misconstrued.”
Warren has promised to appoint women or non-binary people to at least half of the top positions in the executive branch if she wins the presidency.
She has based her campaign on a populist anti-corruption message and argues the country needs “big, structural change”. Specifically, her anti-corruption plan would “end lobbying as we know it” by instituting a lifetime ban on members of Congress and White House Cabinet secretaries from ever becoming lobbyists.
At the same time, corporate lobbyists would be blocked from working for the federal government.
Both practices are common today.
She also would prohibit federal judges from avoiding misconduct investigations by leaving their posts, prevent courts from sealing settlements in public health and safety cases and ban class-action waivers for all cases involving employment, consumer protection, antitrust and civil rights.
And taking direct aim at issues involving the Trump administration, Warren would require candidates for public office to post their tax returns online.
Presidents, Cabinet secretaries and members of Congress would also be prohibited from owning businesses on the side.
Trump, of course, has refused to release his tax returns years after promising to do so, and the Trump organisation continues to do business around the world.
“Donald Trump is corruption in the flesh,” Warren said last year.
“He is sworn to serve the people of the United States, but he serves only himself and his partners in corruption.”
Since arriving in Washington in 2013, the Massachusetts senator and former academic has campaigned to eliminate student debt, which she says is part of a “rigged system”.
But the 70-year-old has faltered in the race, fading from the top of polls nationally after peaking last autumn. Her push for “electability” generally, and a move away from a full-blown ‘medicare for all’ proposal to fix the US healthcare crisis, has resulted in her losing support on the left.
In the Iowa caucuses, Pete Buttigieg clung to a slight lead over Sanders with Warren, former vice president Joe Biden and Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar trailing. Even so, Warren continues to contend that she is the best candidate to unite the party’s warring moderate and progressive factions.
In a sign of possible things to come, Warren was been nicknamed Pocahontas by Trump following her claims of Native American ancestry. Warren has made a public apology for the “harm” she caused for her ancestry claims during her career as a law professor after a DNA test showed she was anywhere from 1/32nd to 1/1024th Native American – or dating back at least six generations.