Elizabeth Warren to officially launch 2020 presidential campaign

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is officially launching her presidential campaign Saturday morning, over a month after she announced an exploratory committee to test the viability of a bid for the White House. Warren is scheduled to make the announcement in Lawrence, Massachusetts, at 11 a.m. ET. 

She will then travel to a campaign event in nearby Dover, New Hampshire.

Warren’s nascent campaign has been plagued with controversy over a DNA test she took in the fall to show that she has some Native American heritage. President Trump has often taunted Warren, dubbing her “Pocahontas” to mock her heritage claims. To announce the results of the DNA test, Warren used a campaign-style video that tried to directly address questions about her background.

The Cherokee Nation criticized Warren’s announcement last year, saying her use of a DNA test is “useless” for determining tribal citizenship and that using DNA analysis to determine connection to any tribal nation is “inappropriate and wrong.” Warren apologized to leaders of the Cherokee Nation earlier this month.

Warren also apologized Wednesday afternoon for claiming she was of “American Indian” origin in a Texas Bar registration card from 1986. Warren said she wrote that based on stories her family told about their heritage.

“I am sorry that I extended confusion about tribal citizenship and tribal sovereignty and for harm caused I am also sorry for not being more mindful of this decades ago tribes and only tribes determine tribal citizenship,” Warren told reporters.

Warren will be the third senator to officially launch her campaign, after Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has also announced an exploratory committee. Senators Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown and Amy Klobuchar are also publicly mulling presidential bids. 

In a video announcing the exploratory committee released on social media on December 31, Warren said she’s running in order to take a stand for middle-class Americans. She laid out the vision for her presidency in the video as one in which democracy and our economy “work for all of us.”  

“In our country if you work hard and play by the rules, you ought to be able to take care of yourself and the people you love. That’s a fundamental promise of America,” she said. She believes “working families today face a lot tougher path than my family did. And families of color face a path that is steeper and rockier. A path made even harder by the impact of generations of discrimination.”

While Warren represents Massachusetts, she was born and raised in Oklahoma, attended college in New Jersey, and taught at law schools in Texas and Pennsylvania before teaching at Harvard. 

Warren is a staunch consumer advocate who played a key role in the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during the Obama administration.

Ed O’Keefe and Jack Turman contributed to this report.