Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts and 2020 presidential hopeful, isn’t holding back when it comes to policy proposals. For just about every promise she makes on the campaign trail, a proposal soon follows.
Refreshingly, the senator has also shown up with a lot of humor. One example? Promising to help a woman with her love life, which unsurprisingly went viral on Twitter. She also knows how to connect with a certain generation, given her Game of Thrones recap with rising star New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But given that Warren isn’t weak on details, let’s just dive into five of her big ideas.
1. She has big plans for student debt relief
Student debt is a crisis. And it’s one that can have long-term, crushing impacts on women, people of color, and those who are low-income. Warren is serious about changing the game.
Here’s the short version of how her plan works out. For households where you earn less than $100,000 per year, up to $50,000 of your student debt would be cut. For those above $100,000, it’s basically a sliding scale. As your income level increases, the relief gets a little lower. And if your household income is at $250,000 or above, you aren’t eligible.
If you’re curious about how your specific numbers would work out, she has a handy calculator right on her website.
2. She wants to support HBCUs in a huge way
HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) need—and deserve—support to continue providing the incredible resources, community, and educational opportunities they are known for. They’re closing at a rapid rate, nationwide. Warren has a proposal to set aside a minimum of $50 billion to support these underfunded institutions, in whatever way they deem appropriate.
“Part of my proposal is to put more than $50 billion directly into HBCUs, and other minority-serving institutions, and to say to those schools, “spend it the way you think is most important,” Warren told Jessica Sutherland, Trending News Editor at Daily Kos, during an in-person interview on April 24. “For some, it will mean buildings. For some that will mean expanding faculty. For some, it will mean expanding student support. For some it will mean, let's get rid of tuition, even at private HBCUs.”
3. She’s been a long-time advocate for the LGBTQ community
Warren has advocated on behalf of the LBGTQ community for years. Most recently, she’s called for Trump’s transphobic ban on transgender people serving in the military to be reversed. She’s also called for a nationwide ban on conversion therapy, an inhumane “therapy” that tries to turn queer (or questioning) youth straight and cisgender. She’s also worked to lift the ban on blood donations from gay men.
She’s proudly supported same-sex marriage since 2011, which was even before Barack Obama did. In a 2012 interview with the Washington Blade, she even called him out on it, saying, “I want to see the president evolve because I believe that is right; marriage equality is morally right.”
After her first term in the Massachusetts Senate, she received a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign.
4. Warren wants to make housing more affordable
Warren’s affordable housing bill has probably gotten the most attention from when she talked about it at a CNN Town Hall. The bill, called the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act, would basically increase how much the federal government puts into affordable housing. What does this look like? The federal government would invest $450 billion over a period of 10 years, with the goal being to refurbish or build 3 million affordable housing units. This would also create 1.5 million new jobs.
“Anybody in here worry about the rising price of housing?” Warren said to the audience at the Town Hall in Jackson, Mississippi. “In the same way that we think about health care as a basic human right, having a decent and safe place to live should be a human—a basic human right.”
5. She wants to legalize cannabis nationwide
At a town hall in Nevada, Warren explained that, as president, she’d want to legalize cannabis across the country. While she at one pointed opposed legalizing cannabis in Massachusetts, she has confirmed that her views have changed. In 2016, she supported research on the use of medical marijuana as an alternative to opioids. The following year, she called out the Trump administration for its intent to increase cannabis-related punishments across the country.
Warren also (accurately) acknowledges that when it comes to cannabis, punishment is not equal nor fair. It’s not just about cannabis; it’s actually about racial justice.
“African Americans and whites all use (marijuana) at about the same rates. But people of color are far more likely to be arrested," she told the audience in Reno. "We have criminalized too much behavior in America."
Curious about Warren’s personal background? Here’s a clip, courtesy of YouTube, of her describing her family’s financial struggles when she was young:
Want to read more fast facts on the other 2020 contenders? Check out Julián Castro or Cory Booker next.