Opinion | Win with Warren

The 2020 Democratic presidential primary has been going on for what feels like forever.

For more than a year now, a million different candidates have been battling it out to decide who will represent the Democratic party and run against President Donald Trump to take back the White House in 2020. As we arrive at Super Tuesday, the day in which the most states hold their primaries, we still have too many candidates to choose from.

The choice should be simple. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., should be the Democratic nominee. Despite the fact that she’s not the frontrunner in this race, she’s proven that she’s a fighter who deserves your vote. Warren can beat Donald Trump and would undoubtedly spend her time in office fighting for the American people and standing up to billionaires. She is the best person to serve as president of the United States.

While it’s true that Warren is not currently the frontrunner in the Democratic primary, most of the voting has not happened yet, and she’s one of the few candidates with the polling average and the money to stay in this and win. Warren was the frontrunner in the race a few months ago, but she’s dipped in polls as of late in part because of unfounded concerns about her electability.

Democratic primary voters — understandably — are obsessed with choosing a nominee that can defeat Trump. Unfortunately, many of them have let that obsession warp their ideas of what electability actually is. Electability, for many voters, has come to mean a white male candidate. These misguided notions have made some voters less inclined to vote for a candidate like Warren — who is a progressive woman — even if they genuinely like her the best.

But Warren is “electable” — meaning she’s won every election she’s participated in, even a tough fight against an incumbent Republican in Massachusetts. Warren has spent this entire campaign doing the work on the ground, listening and learning from members of marginalized communities. She’s shown us that she can inspire large coalitions of organizers, that she can decimate Donald Trump on the debate stage — and that she can beat him in the general election. Not voting for Warren in this primary just because a theoretical voter in the midwest might vote for Trump over her because she’s a woman is ridiculous — and it is not the way we should pick our nominee.

Of course, misguided concerns about electability are not the only reason people may not want to vote for Warren. There are obviously many other good candidates in this race that people may prefer. Some voters may also no longer want to vote for Warren because she did not win any of the four early states and she’s been written off in several media narratives. But she is a persistent fighter who is the best choice for the nomination, and her campaign is far from over.

In this primary, Warren has been excluded by pollsters and told to drop out by political pundits and Twitter trolls. Still, Warren has stayed in this race and fought harder than ever — especially in the last two debates where she murdered Mike Bloomberg. She’s proven repeatedly that she’s willing to fight no matter what — and that’s exactly what she’ll do for the rest of this primary and as president.

“There is one candidate I see who is unafraid to fight like hell to make sure America’s promise will be there for everyone,” former presidential candidate Julian Castro said.

Warren will fight for Americans, both to free us from the Trump presidency and to ensure a country that works for all of us when she’s president. Fighting for Americans — especially underdogs — is what Warren has spent her whole life doing. Before she even became a senator, Warren worked with former President Barack Obama to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — or CFPB — a government agency responsible for protecting consumers in the financial sector. Creating the CFPB was not easy, as Wall Street and even some Democrats opposed it. But Warren got it done because of her commitment to ensure a better future for all Americans — which is exactly what she plans to do as president.

Warren has plans for tackling the climate crisis, fixing our health care system and ensuring Medicare for All, tackling corruption, combating student loan debt, reforming immigration, holding big corporations accountable, strengthening reproductive rights, ensuring racial and economic justice and opportunity for all, building financial security for all Americans and many, many more plans. One of the chief slogans of the Warren campaign is “I have a plan for that” for a reason.

Warren doesn’t just have the plans to combat these issues, she has plans to pay for these programs with her 2-cent wealth tax on the ultra-rich — a wealth tax even 50% of Republicans support. Warren also knows how to actually get her plans passed. Items that she can get done by herself, like banning offshore drilling, Warren will handle on day one. However, large legislative plans that need to be handled through Congress are a bit more complicated to get passed. Still, Warren knows exactly what to do there — abolish the Senate filibuster.

Even if Democrats are able to take back the Senate majority, the filibuster is still a blockade that will prevent Democrats from passing legislation. The filibuster is the Senate rule — cloture — that does not allow debate on a bill to move to vote unless three-fifths of the senators — or 60 of them — vote to close debate. In this polarized climate, it is unlikely that 60 senators will agree on much of anything, which is why we need a president committed to abolishing the filibuster if the Republicans prove to be obstinate and block legislation like we know they will.

Warren is one of the only candidates with a chance of winning the nomination that is for abolishing the filibuster. If we want bold, progressive legislation that genuinely works for all Americans and helps marginalized communities, we need to elect a president with detailed plans to pay for and pass this legislation. That person is Elizabeth Warren.

Warren has shown throughout her campaign — and her entire career — that she’s willing to put in the work to get things done and that she’ll fight until the end. That’s exactly what she’ll do if we choose her to be the Democratic nominee. She can beat Trump. We just need to give her the chance to do it.

Devi primarily writes about politics for The Pitt News. Write to her at dvr7@pitt.edu and follow her on Twitter for more hot takes @DeviRuia.