Elizabeth Warren Fast Facts
CNN Editorial Research
Here’s a look at the life of Democratic US Senator and 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.
Personal
Birth date: June 22, 1949
Birth place: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Birth name: Elizabeth Ann Herring
Father: Donald Herring, salesman and maintenance man
Mother: Pauline (Reed) Herring, department store worker
Marriages: Bruce Mann (July 12, 1980-present); Jim Warren (1968-1980, divorced)
Children: with Jim Warren: Alex, 1976; Amelia, 1971
Education: Attended George Washington University, 1966-1968; University of Houston, B.S. Speech Pathology and Audiology, 1970; Rutgers University, J.D., 1976
Religion: Methodist
Other Facts
State high school champion in debate.
Before the mid-1990s, Warren was a registered Republican.
Warren is an expert on bankruptcy law and was an adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission in the 1990s.
Warren has written or cowritten at least 12 books. Her books include two co-written with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke” and “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan.”
Timeline
1966-1968 – Warren attends George Washington University on a debate scholarship. She drops out after two years to get married.
Early 1970s – After graduating from college, Warren works as a speech pathologist at a New Jersey elementary school.
1977-1978 – Law lecturer at Rutgers School of Law.
1978-1983 – Assistant, and later associate professor at the University of Houston Law Center.
1983-1987 – Professor of law at the University of Texas Law School in Austin.
1987-1995 – Law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
1992-1993 – Visiting professor at Harvard Law School.
1995-2012 – Professor at Harvard Law School.
2007 – Warren writes an article outlining her idea for a federal agency designed to protect consumers from fraudulent or misleading financial products, like mortgages and credit cards.
November 14, 2008 – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appoints Warren to a Congressional oversight panel overseeing the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.
September 17, 2010 – President Barack Obama appoints Warren as assistant to the president and special adviser to the Treasury secretary in order to launch the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
July 2011 – Due to opposition from Republicans and some Democrats, Obama declines to nominate Warren as permanent director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
August 1, 2011 – Warren steps down as a special adviser to Obama.
September 14, 2011 – Warren announces she’s running for the US Senate in Massachusetts.
September 5, 2012 – Warren speaks at the Democratic National Convention.
November 6, 2012 – Wins the race for Senate in Massachusetts, defeating incumbent Scott Brown.
April 22, 2014 – Warren’s memoir, “A Fighting Chance,” is published.
November 13, 2014 – Reid taps Warren to join his leadership team.
December 15, 2014 – In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Warren repeats four times that she is not running for president in 2016.
June 2, 2015 – Warren writes a scathing letter to Mary Jo White, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), saying “I am disappointed by the significant gap between the promises you made during and shortly after your confirmation and your performance as SEC Chair.” In a statement released in 2013, Warren said that “the SEC needs to be a tough watchdog for the American people.”
February 7, 2017 – During a debate on the nomination of Jeff Sessions as US attorney general. Senate Republicans vote to rebuke Warren as she reads a letter that Coretta Scott King wrote in 1986 criticizing Sessions.
April 18, 2017 – Her book “This Fight Is Our Fight” is published.
June 5, 2017 – FCTRY, a Brooklyn-based product design company, starts a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of Warren action figures, and surpasses its goal within hours. FCTRY says it wants to partner with Emily’s List, a non-profit that promotes getting pro-choice, Democratic women elected to office.
November 27, 2017 – At an event honoring Navajo code talkers, President Donald Trump references Warren by the nickname he gave her, Pocahontas. In an interview with MSNBC, Warren remarks, “It is deeply unfortunate that the President of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur. Donald Trump does this over and over thinking somehow he is going to shut me up with it. It hasn’t worked in the past, it isn’t going to work out in the future.”
October 15, 2018 – Warren releases results of a DNA test showing she has distant Native American ancestry, with analysis performed by Carlos Bustamante, a professor of genetics at Stanford University and adviser to Ancestry and 23 and Me. The Cherokee Nation issues a statement in response to the test, criticizing Warren for using DNA to claim tribal heritage.
November 6, 2018 – Is reelected for a second term in the US Senate.
December 31, 2018 – Announces that she is forming a presidential exploratory committee.
January 31, 2019 – The Intercept reports that Warren reached out to Cherokee leaders and apologized in the wake of the DNA testing.
February 4, 2019 – Warren tells CNN she has apologized to Cherokee leaders for sparking “confusion” by her use of a DNA test to prove Native American ancestry, adding that she didn’t mean to cause any “harm” to the tribe by citing her heritage “decades ago.”
February 5, 2019 – The Washington Post reports Warren listed her race as “American Indian” on a State Bar of Texas registration card in 1986.
February 9, 2019 – Warren officially launches her 2020 presidential campaign at a rally in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
March 5, 2020 – Warren announces she is ending her presidential campaign.
April 15, 2020 – Warren endorses Joe Biden for president.
April 23, 2020 – Warren announces her oldest brother, Donald Reed Herring, died of Covid-19 on April 21, 2020.
May 4, 2021 – Warren’s memoir, “Persist,” is published.
May 9, 2021 – Warren says she will run for reelection for her Senate seat in 2024.
October 12, 2021 – Her children’s book “Pinkie Promises” is published.
December 19, 2021 – Tests positive for the coronavirus, according to a tweet from her official account. Warren, who is vaccinated and boosted, says she is experiencing mild symptoms.
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