Elizabeth Warren Is Running for President

And so it begins.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced early Monday morning that she intends to run for president in 2020. Warren made the long-expected announcement in an email to her donors that included a four-minute video. In the two messages, she revealed the creation of an exploratory committee, which will allow her to raise money and hire campaign staffers before she officially enters the race.

Warren is the first of the big-name candidates to enter the fray, as Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden—two other potential frontrunners—have yet to announce their own exploratory committees. The Democratic field in 2020 is expected to be one of the largest primary fields in decades, however, and with the campaign just starting, assigning Warren or any other potential candidate a frontrunner status is a fool’s errand.

Warren was roundly criticized when she released a six-minute clapback video aimed at President Donald Trump, in which she, a white woman, cited a DNA test as proof of her Native ancestry. The monumental miscalculation forced Native peoples to again explain that blood does not determine one’s inclusion in a tribe or nation; it also did a number on Warren’s chances in the so-far-imaginary 2020 race. Warren has remained silent on the topic in the two months since the video’s release. In her announcement, Warren steered clear of the DNA fiasco, instead doubling-down on her working-class economic message.

With the first big campaign announcement out of the way, it’s likely that a slew of Democratic members of Congress, governors, mayors, city councillors, and water and soil conservation supervisors around the country will follow in the New Year. Here we go, I guess.