In this diary, I suggested that one way we Democrats should evaluate our 2020 POTUS candidates is on having education and other life experience that breaks from the “cookie cutter politician,” mold. Our party is as diverse as America, as our incoming freshman class makes very clear. So why should our POTUS nominee look like a WASP male with an Ivy League education, come from the upper class, etc.? I argue that such a person MIGHT end up our nominee if lots of other factors made it clear that this was the best choice, but that ONE of the metrics we use to measure our candidates is for a breadth of life experience that gets beyond the cookie cutter and shows an ability to connect to ordinary Americans in profound ways.
So, let others write diaries arguing about “electability,” fundraising, groundgame infrastructure in early states, policy positions, etc. Those metrics interest me, too, but this series of diaries will focus on that broad life experience (or lack of it). I had intended to start the series (which will be posted each Friday until our field is “set” or the IA caucuses and NH primary begins, whichever comes first) elsewhere, but Senator Elizabeth Warren’s announcement of an exploratory committee earlier this week leads me to begin with her.
Early life: Born Elizabeth Ann Herring in Oklahoma City, OK on 22 June 1949, she was the 4th child of Donald Jones Herring (1911-1997) and Pauline Reed Herring (1912-1995). She was the only girl in the family. Her three older brothers all had careers in the military. The family was raised United Methodist and Warren has remained active in Methodist churches. Initially, her family was firmly in the lower middle class, but when she was 12 (1961) her father, a salesman at Montgomery Ward, had a heart attack, leading to huge medical bills and reduced income because her father could no longer do his previous work. He had to get part time work as a janitor. The family car was repossessed. Pauline Herring had to go to work in the catalog department at Sears Roebuck Co. for minimum wage—but that prevented the family from losing the house. By the time Elizabeth was 13, she was waiting tables part-time at her aunt’s restaurant.
We already see in this early childhood experience with hardship the kind of life experience that makes Warren a lifelong fighter for ordinary Americans. This is not the dirt poor poverty known by Bill Clinton or Dennis Kucinich, but it is far from the upper middle and upper class upbringings of most of our politicians. Now, FDR and JFK show that those born to wealth can sometimes empathize with those who weren’t and become champions of the marginalized—but it’s not an automatic thing.
Warren was an excellent student, star member of the debate team at Norman Classen High School in Oklahoma City and, at 16, she won a debate scholarship to George Washington University which was the only way she could afford to go to college. She initially studied to be a teacher, but, in a move that was typical for women of her generation, but which she later saw as a mistake, she married her high school sweetheart, Jim Warren, in 1968, dropping out of university to become a housewife. I think this experience allows Warren to empathize with those, especially women, whose career paths have been non-traditional, or who have needed second chances.
First Marriage, Education, Family, and Initial Career: Jim Warren was employed by IBM and moved his young family to Houston, TX. There, Elizabeth enrolled at the University of Houston (which she often describes simply as a “commuter college”) for $50 per semester (plus books) and, in 1970 earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in speech pathology and audiology. She worked with children with speech and hearing disabilities in public school, but had to have an “emergency certificate” because she had not taken enough education courses for a regular teaching certificate. Notice the focus on helping those less fortunate that is Warren’s hallmark.
In 1972, Jim Warren was transferred by IBM to Newark, NJ. (It used to be a standard joke that “IBM” did not really stand for “International Business Machines,” but “I’ve Been Moved” since company advancement depended on frequent re-locations.) In 1971, Elizabeth gave birth to her first child, a daughter, Amelia (now Amelia Warren Tyagi) and when the family moved to Newark, became a stay-at-home mother for a time. (A son, Alexander, would be born in 1976.) After Amelia turned two, Elizabeth enrolled at the Law School of Rutgers’ University—Newark. After earning her JD and passing the bar, Warren decided that rather than take a high pressure job at a law firm, she’d work from home doing wills, estate closings, and other civil matters. That lasted until Rutgers’ Law school called and told her that someone failed to show up for a class, would she like to teach part time?
Again, notice that this is excellent, but not cookie-cutter preparation. Many women have to take breaks in their education and/or careers for family—and even now schools and careers seldom make enough allowances for this. Everything is still designed for a patriarchal system in which men have public roles, aided by women making sacrifices for the careers of husbands. Law school is an excellent preparation (but not the only good preparation) for political life, but Rutgers’ Law School (small when Warren attended, but now the largest public law school) is not one of the “go-to” law schools for the political elites: Harvard, Yale, and, to a lesser extent University of Virginia, and University of Michigan. This gives a different approach to law and lawmaking. I think this might mean that a POTUS Warren could well look beyond Harvard and Yale when appointing federal judges and, especially, Supreme Court Justices—which was one of my few complaints about President Obama’s nominations.
Law Professor and Bankruptcy Expert: Warren taught law at Rutgers Law School, the University of Houston Law School, University of Texas Law School, University of Michigan Law School, the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania, and, finally, Harvard University Law School. She became an expert in bankruptcy law and tax law and, together with her daughter, Amelia, wrote 2 books about the ways in which the U.S. economy since Reagan set debt traps for two-income families, so that they could easily fall behind the stability their parents had known with one breadwinner.
Along the way, Elizabeth and Jim Warren divorced (1978) and she met and married fellow law professor Bruce Mann, choosing to retain her surname from her first marriage since she already had several academic publications under that name.
Her background gives Warren deep insight into economics, but from a much different perspective than someone who went either to business school or earned an economics degree. Much of her expertise has been the result of her own research which is why she is able to explain things so well to non-experts.
Along the way, her discoveries led her to switch political parties from Republican to Democratic in 1996 as she concluded that the kinds of Eisenhower Republicans among whom she was raised were quickly becoming extinct. She switched parties to remain true to her values and commitments to restoring a level economic playing field for all Americans.
I have not focused on her policies and platform. Others can do this. But this kind of background I think is good preparation for a progressive Democratic POTUS. Is it the only one? No. I remain open to other candidacies and will be preparing other profiles, but Warren’s background is one which I predict will help her with both policy and politically connecting to voters.