A closer look at the most debated and controversial moments involving Elizabeth Warren.
Elizabeth Warren is a prominent American politician and the senior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts since 2013. A Democrat known for her progressive views, she champions consumer protection, economic equality, and strengthening the social safety net. Warren ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primaries, finishing third. Prior to her political career, she was a distinguished law professor specializing in bankruptcy and commercial law. Warren is seen as a leading voice for economic reform and social justice within the Democratic Party.
In 1976, Elizabeth Warren voted for Gerald Ford, the Republican nominee.
In 1984, Warren contributed recipes to a Native American cookbook, identifying herself as Cherokee.
In 1986, Warren identified her race as "American Indian" on a State Bar of Texas form.
From 1991 to 1996, Elizabeth Warren was registered as a Republican.
From 1995 to 2004, Harvard Law School listed Warren as Native American in its federal affirmative action forms.
In 1995, Elizabeth Warren began voting Democratic, believing that the Republican Party no longer supported markets.
From 1991 to 1996, Elizabeth Warren was registered as a Republican.
From 1995 to 2004, Harvard Law School listed Warren as Native American in its federal affirmative action forms.
In 2005, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, despite Warren's opposition.
In 2005, Elizabeth Warren and David Himmelstein published a study indicating that half of all families declaring bankruptcy did so following a significant medical issue. The study reported that 75% of these families had medical insurance.
In January 2012, Richard Cordray was appointed to the CFPB director position after Warren was deemed unlikely to win Senate confirmation.
During Warren's first Senate race in 2012, her opponent, Scott Brown, questioned her Native American ancestry and ran attack ads regarding the issue.
In 2012, Warren stated that "being Native American has been part of my story, I guess, since the day I was born".
In February 2013, at her first Banking Committee hearing, Elizabeth Warren questioned banking regulators about holding Wall Street banks accountable, expressing concerns that 'too big to fail' had become 'too big for trial'.
On September 20, 2016, Elizabeth Warren called on Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf to resign and be criminally investigated during a hearing, due to the bank's opening of two million unauthorized accounts.
The Mueller report stated that a hostile foreign government attacked the 2016 election to help Donald Trump.
In February 2017, during the debate on Jeff Sessions's nomination, Elizabeth Warren was silenced for reading a letter from Coretta Scott King. Mitch McConnell's phrase 'Nevertheless, she persisted' became a slogan.
On October 3, 2017, Elizabeth Warren called on Wells Fargo CEO Timothy J. Sloan to resign during his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee, citing incompetence or complicity.
At a July 2018 Montana rally, Donald Trump mocked Warren for her Native American ancestry, promising to donate $1 million to her charity if a DNA test showed she was an Indian.
In October 2018, Warren released an analysis of a DNA test that suggested she had a Native American ancestor, likely 6 to 10 generations ago.
A 2018 Boston Globe investigation found that Warren's reported ethnicity played no role in her rise in the academic legal profession.
In 2018, Warren called for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
During a January 2019 public appearance in Sioux City, Iowa, Warren addressed questions about her DNA testing and clarified the difference between ancestry and tribal citizenship. She also contacted Cherokee Nation to apologize for any confusion caused.
In February 2019, Warren apologized for having identified as Native American.
In April 2019, after reading the Mueller report, Warren called on the House of Representatives to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, citing obstruction of the investigation into Russian interference.
In August 2019, Warren apologized again before a Native American Forum in Iowa for any harm caused by her ancestry claims.
In 2019, Politico highlighted Elizabeth Warren's shift from being a "diehard conservative" in high school to her later political views.