'One might say you persist': Elizabeth Warren says she's not discouraged by sexism in politics as she seeks to make history in 2020
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Democratic candidate for president, said she's not discouraged by sexism in politics as she aims to be the first woman elected president of the United States.
- On Monday night, at one of five consecutive hour-long CNN town halls, Warren was asked if she was concerned about being "Hillary'd" during the campaign - an apparent shorthand for facing sexism during the race.
- Warren responded by discussing her first election - the 2012 race for Senate against then-Sen. Scott Brown, a popular Republican - and the sexism she faced during that campaign.
- The senator hearkened back to a 2017 Warren rallying cry: "Nevertheless, she persisted."
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Democratic candidate for president, said she's not discouraged by sexism in politics as she aims to be the first woman elected president of the United States.
On Monday night, at one of five consecutive hour-long CNN candidate town halls, Warren was asked if she was concerned about being "Hillary'd" during the campaign - an apparent shorthand for facing sexism during the race.
Warren responded by discussing her first election - the 2012 race for Senate against then-Sen. Scott Brown, a popular Republican - and the sexism she faced during that campaign.
"So I jumped in the race and sure enough, you know, the early coverage is about what I'm wearing, it's about my hair, it's about my voice, it's about whether or not I smile enough. (I didn't.) It was every part of that," she said.
"And this kept up, and I thought, you know, look, 'I'm going to be in this race, I'm going to make something count every single day," she continued. "So every day when I saw a little girl, I would come up and I would usually get down - I'm a teacher - and I would say 'Hi! My name is Elizabeth, and I'm running for Senate because that's what girls do.'"
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They would then pinky swear that they'd remember that girls could run for office, and when she was discouraged would count how many pinky promises she'd made that day. Warren won her Senate election in 2012, and she credited that to staying on her message of progressive policies.
The Senator also hearkened back to a 2017 Warren rallying cry: "Nevertheless, she persisted."
During the Senate's debate over the confirmation of then-Sen. Jeff Sessions to the post of attorney general, Warren read a quote from the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and then began to read from a letter written by Coretta Scott King about Sessions in the 1980s during a different Senate confirmation hearing.
There was disagreement about her ability to read that letter and whether it breached a Senate rule. She was ultimately reprimanded on the Senate floor by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who said, "Senator Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation."
"So the way I see it, is here we are in a presidential [campaign], and it's the same kind of - you stay after it every day," she said. "One might say you persist."
Warren is not the only Democratic woman seeking the party's presidential nomination. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand are running in the 2020 race. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is also running, as is author Marianne Williamson. (It's also worth noting that 2020 marks the 100-year anniversary of the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.)
This wide field of women running follows the 2016 presidential election during which the former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton lost to then-candidate Donald Trump, after being the first woman to win the a major party's presidential nomination.