My Plan to Take Back the White House → Elizabeth Warren
I won’t bury the lede: I’m voting for Elizabeth Warren for President on Election Day here in Massachusetts next week.
I’m voting for Elizabeth Warren for the same reasons that I’m running for Congress: to fight back against the hate and backwards thinking coming out of the White House and to fight for the future that all of us deserve. We need to create a fair economy that works for everyone. That means fighting for health care that everybody can afford and access, fighting to protect reproductive rights, fighting to break down the barriers to opportunity and inclusion born of centuries of systemic racism, fighting against climate change and for a transportation system that actually works, and fighting for housing and education that are actually within reach of workers and their families. When I think about which candidate for president can lead on those crucial fights, Elizabeth Warren is the clear choice.
In the fall of 2012, I was a member of the Brookline Select Board and got a call from the Elizabeth Warren for Senate campaign asking me to speak at an event that then-candidate Elizabeth Warren was holding with women’s health activist Sandra Fluke. Just months earlier, Sandra Fluke had been the target of hateful attacks from men on the far right because she had stood up for insurance access to contraception. It was one of the easiest things I had ever said yes to. I knew from my time as the Vice President of External Affairs at Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts that it was one thing to run for office and pledge to vote the right way on issues of reproductive health, and it was another to pledge to be a champion for the issue. Elizabeth Warren was clearly running to be a champion, and it was an honor to stand with her and with Sandra Fluke that day to make the case for electing a woman with the core values, fearlessness, and plans to get things done — on reproductive health and on so many other progressive causes. She hasn’t let me down.
Watching Elizabeth Warren mount an inclusive, people-powered campaign for President, I have been moved by her personal experience growing up in rural America. Her lived experience has so fundamentally informed her policy positions, and the passion she brings to these fights. I can relate. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, across from a corn field and next to a dairy farm. For generations, industry has come and gone. Even in today’s strong (for some) economy, the poverty level where I grew up hovers around 20%. When I was in high school, the paper factory that fueled our entire county shut down. My father’s small business struggled. I saw friends and neighbors lose their jobs and pushed to the brink trying to make ends meet.
Elizabeth Warren knows this struggle. When she was young, her father suffered a heart attack and her family was on the verge of losing their home. That is, until Elizabeth’s mother secured a minimum wage job at Sears and brought home the money their family needed to sustain themselves.
Like me, Elizabeth Warren knows what it’s like to be from a place that feels as though it has been left behind. To feel like prosperity left your community long ago nobody is looking in the rearview mirror to check on how you’re doing.
I have proudly supported and campaigned for Senator Warren in each of her races because she is a champion for working families. She is a champion for equity. She is a champion for unity. She has the lived experience, the professional experience, the intellect, and the compassion to lead our nation out of this dark period of our history into a more progressive future. Isabella even got in on the campaign action when Senator Warren was up for reelection! Senator Warren has earned my vote.
In November, I will vote for and rally behind whoever the Democratic nominee is. But I firmly believe we need President Elizabeth Warren (and First Dog Bailey). That’s why I am proud to cast my ballot in support of her in the Massachusetts Presidential Primary. LFG!
