Warren, at a rally in New York, presents his campaign as a successor to other women-led movements



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Elizabeth Warren | Getty

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren described a cycle of factory owners distributing campaign donations, gathering lawmakers and blocking reforms. | Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), In a speech that brought thousands of followers to a Lower Manhattan historic site, on Monday made one of her most explicit calls to voters since the beginning of the year. announcing his candidacy for the White House.

In Washington Square Park, a neighborhood marked by the history of women's political action against corruption and big business, she sought to make her own campaign the next iteration of this movement.

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"We are not here today because of famous arches or famous men. In fact, we are not here because of men, "she proclaimed with acclamation. "We are here because of some hard-working women."

Warren was standing in front of one of the biggest crowds in his campaign, one block from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory site, where a fire in 1911 caused by dangerous conditions in the sweatshop killed 146 people, mostly immigrants. The episode has become a national symbol of the mistreatment of businesses in the garment industry by businesses and has led to extensive labor reforms.

Warren, who is gaining momentum as the Democratic field begins to tighten, has attempted to tie his own candidacy to the labor movement led by women that the Triangle fire has sparked. She singled out Frances Perkins, who had witnessed the tragedy and later contributed to the organization and implementation of reforms, later becoming President Franklin Roosevelt's Labor Secretary and the first woman member of the organization. firm. Perkins later said that the fire was "the day the New Deal was born," noted Warren.

"So, what's a woman – a very persistent woman, backed by millions of people across the country – did?" Warren said. "Social security, unemployment insurance, abolition of child labor, minimum wage, the right to join a trade union, even the very existence of the weekend."

In channeling her own campaign slogans, she added, "A great structural change. A woman and millions of people to help her.

Warren's speech was the latest example of the subtle and explicit calls for the campaign for female political leadership in a country that has never elected a woman president.

On the trail, when she was discussing the steps she would take with her executive, she often begins with: "I like to say this:" What a president can do all in himselfIn her "selfie lines" after public meetings, she usually kneels and swears to the girls to swear, "I'm running for president because that's what girls do." She almost always works with "persevere," a reference to etiquette that Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, unwittingly turned into a feminist rallying cry when he delivered the end of the speech. from Warren to the Senate in 2017.

And before the Monday night speech, the Warren campaign playlist "Like a girl" by Lizzo starting with: "I feel awake as if I could run for president, even if there was no precedent, change the message", I'm about to add a little estrogen. "

In addition to Warren's rhetoric, 64% of those on the campaign's payroll are women, according to a spokesperson, including the directors of the four early elections.

Despite the political hurdles that any candidate faces, the big and the small advances have the potential to tap into the same political energy that presided over the March of Women and the election of a record number of women at the polls. Mid-session of the Congress in 2018. Since women represent about 60% of voters in the 2020 Democratic primary, the ability of a candidate to mobilize voters on her behalf could be crucial in the fight for the candidacy.

Warren is not the only one to pursue such a strategy. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) Explicitly called on the voters to adopt the direction of her political strategy, which eventually collapsed, leading to an early exit from the presidential race. Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) Also experienced viral moments encouraging young girls and launched an electoral breakthrough with black voters.

But the Massachusetts senator currently has a slight but steady advantage with the female voters, unlike the other main candidates, and it looks like the slight advantage that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has on male voters, according to one FiveThirtyEight analysis polls on the month of August. Warren still struggles with women of color.

On the trail, there are signs that the strategy is working. In its town halls across the country, the crowd tends to skew slightly women, many athletes wearing tattoos and tattoos with the theme "persistent". Many women and some men present have clearly stated that they want to vote for a woman in 2020. Outside of her town halls, independent sellers often sell products evoking Warren's potential to be the first female president – the T-shirts "Madame la President "and Rosie the Riveter. buttons with Warren's face superimposed.

Warren's approach, however, extends beyond the genre in a way that Gillibrand has not developed. The evening of Monday evening showed that the campaign was not only about the political power of women, but also about people facing dangerous working conditions and low wages.

"It took 18 minutes for 146 people to die. Especially women. Mostly immigrants – Jews and Italians, "she said. "They are mainly people who earn as little as $ 5 a week to try to realize their American dream."

Warren told the story of the atrocity in great detail before linking it to his plan, announced monday morningto attack the power of the companies it believes still dominate the political process 108 years later.

She described a cycle of factory owners distributing campaign donations, assembling legislators and blocking reforms.

"Does this sound familiar to you?" She asked. "Take any big problem we have today in the United States and you do not have to dig very deep to see the same system at work."

She then presented what she called "the biggest anti-corruption plan since Watergate," which includes drastically curtailing the lobbying sector, including banning senators, congressmen and secretaries-general from becoming lobbyists. lobbyists.

It would require that meetings between lobbyists and elected officials be made public and abolish political donations from lobbyists in contact with the same government officials, calling this practice "the very definition of corruption".

The Warren Senate office has announced to POLITICO that it would introduce a bill that it had sponsored, the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, in the "coming months" .

But such nuances did not seem to upset the crowd, who cheered Monday when Warren said, "I know what's wrong, I have a plan to fix it, and that's why I'm here. to the presidency of the United States. "

As a result of her remarks, supporters moved to take selfies with her. A woman, Heather Quick, age 45, said she decided to support Warren or Sanders during the primary.

She said she was shocked by Warren's mention of criminal justice reform on Monday night and had heard most of the rest of her speech.

"I like that her conversation was caused by the Triangle Shirtwaist fire," she said. "It's a brilliant decision to include her in her speech, which obviously leads you to the role of women in political change and unionization."

This report was first published on politico.com on September 16, 2019.

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