(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, addresses an overflow crowd outside an organizing event at McCoy's Bar Patio and Grill in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Friday, Jan. 4, 2019. Warren is making her first visit to Iowa this weekend as a likely presidential candidate, testing how her brand of fiery liberalism plays in the nation's premier caucus state.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren officially announced she is running for president in the 2020 Election.
- Speaking to a crowd in Lawrence, Massachusetts Saturday afternoon, Warren called supporters to join "the fight of our lives" against the broken system in Washington and vowed to fight for middle-class Americans.
- Warren's comments Saturday echo her December announcement that she was launching an exploratory committee, which said her run was dedicated to defending the middle class.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren officially announced she is running for president in the 2020 Election.
Speaking to a lively crowd in Lawrence, Massachusetts Saturday afternoon, Warren called supporters to back the "fight of our lives" against corruption and slanted regulations in Washington.
"It won't be enough to just undo the terrible acts of this administration," Warren said. "We can't afford to just tinker around the edges - a tax credit here, a regulation there. Our fight is for big, structural change."
Decrying the broken system in Washington, Warren echoed her past comments when she vowed to fight for middle-class Americans.
"This is the fight of our lives.," Warren said. "The fight to build an America where dreams are possible, an America that works for everyone. I am in that fight all the way. And that is why I stand here today: to declare that I am a candidate for President of the United States of America."
Laying out the primary concerns of her campaign, Warren said she was focused on changing regulations that would "clean up Washington, change rules in our economy, change rules to strengthen our democracy."
Warren repeated her promise she would not accept any money from PACs or federal lobbying, and would not allow super PACs to be formed on her behalf.
Pointing to her background in law and academia, which contributed to her spearheading the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and calling banking executives before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, of which she's a member, Warren said she would focus on eradicating corruption in Washington.
"Corruption is a cancer on our society and we will get rid of it with strong medicine, with real structural reform," Warren said.
Warren took aim at President Donald Trump's administration, which she called "the most corrupt in living memory," but urged that "even after Trump is gone, it won't do to just keep running a broken system."
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Warren was at the event joined by family, including her husband, Bruce, and her two children.
In an email to supporters last week, Warren's campaign said the location for the announcement was chosen because of the 1912 strike by textile workers in Lawrence, many of whom were women, because they were "underpaid, overworked, and flat-out exploited workers from more than 50 countries gave Lawrence the nickname 'Immigrant City.'"
Warren first announced that she was launching an exploratory committee for a presidential run in 2020 in a video posted to her website on December 31, 2018. In the video, Warren - who has long been expected to run - described her vision of defending the middle class, which she said was "under attack."
Warren quickly began recruiting top staff in key primary states including New Hampshire and Iowa, and has campaigned in those states, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico.