It was clear several months ago that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) was planning a presidential run. She tried to get ahead of the “Native American DNA” controversy by taking a DNA test and putting together a long video about her family. I was surprised by the reaction to Warren’s attempt to negate this attack on her, that “she lied” about having Native American ancestry. It felt like people were MORE offended that Warren addressed the controversy directly by taking a DNA test rather than all of the racist attacks against her for years, with even Donald Trump calling her “Pocahontas” and saying he wouldn’t believe a DNA test until he gave her one himself. It’s like journalists and professional political operatives have completely lost the f–king thread of this dumbsh-ttery in the Trump Era. I could go on and on about this, but I won’t. Right now.

Anyway, Sen. Warren’s #ButHerDNA issue was largely seen, by the political class, as a red mark against her. I guess they thought she’d just walk away from a presidential run. She’s not walking away.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren jumped into the 2020 presidential campaign Monday, offering a message of economic populism as she became the best-known Democratic candidate yet to enter what is expected to be a crowded race. Warren’s announcement that she was establishing an exploratory committee — the legal precursor to a run — came as other candidates, including several of her fellow senators, made final preparations for their own announcements, some of which are expected in days.

“America’s middle class is under attack,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in a four-minute, 30-second video emailed to supporters Monday. “How did we get here? Billionaires and big corporations decided they wanted more of the pie. And they enlisted politicians to cut them a bigger slice.”

The video is part biographical, showing her hardscrabble Oklahoma upbringing; part economics lesson, replete with charts illustrating how the middle class is losing economic ground; and part red meat for the Democratic base, with images of President Trump and others disliked by liberals: presidential aides Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller and former adviser Stephen K. Bannon.

It made no mention of a recent Warren stumble: her October decision to release results of a DNA test that said she probably had a distant Native American ancestor. The move had been meant to stifle Trump’s criticism of her but only engendered more mockery from him while also angering Democrats, particularly minorities who objected to her defining ethnicity via a test. While the race for the Democratic nomination is only starting, even Warren’s supporters acknowledge that she has lost ground in the last few months, both by her own hand and because the November midterm elections redefined Democratic success with candidates who were in many cases a generation younger.

[From WaPo]

So, she’s running. And it’s very early – I expect that she’ll be the first person to plainly make these moves for another two months. Joe Biden will make some noise, and I’ve already seen that my former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe is making some noise too (McAuliffe should not run – I voted for him and I thought he was a good governor, but I don’t want to see a presidential run from him). In lieu of big announcements from other people, Sen. Warren is going to take a lot of hits. Right now, I’ll support her. But if Kamala Harris gets in the race… lord, I don’t know.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.