Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 11:23 am
Massachusetts senator and progressive star Elizabeth Warren announced on Wednesday that she will be serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the next Congress – a sign that Warren is looking to expand her resume beyond the economic issues that have defined her political rise.
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be serving on the Senate Committee on Armed Services in the next Congress.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 14, 2016
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The Armed Services committee deals with matters involving military policy and defense spending. The committee will also weigh in on many of Donald Trump’s Pentagon appointments. Not only will this help Warren build foreign policy chops, but it could also give her a chance to repeatedly act as a high-profile opponent to Trump’s White House.
Of course, it’s no certainty that Warren is taking the new role as a ladder toward a presidential run, but if she is planning to launch a candidacy in four years, this is a smart move in bolstering her credentials.
A new and premature poll released Wednesday by Public Policy Polling shows that, at the moment, Warren’s biggest potential primary foes are outgoing Vice President Joe Biden and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who have healthy leads over her in a hypothetical primary matchup.
Poll:
2020 National DEM Primary:
Biden 31%
Sanders 24
Warren 16
Booker 4
Franken 3
Gillibrand 3
Brown 2
Cuomo 2@ppppollshttps://t.co/J56x18C1t2— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) December 13, 2016
In recent days, Biden has suggested that he is strongly considering a presidential run in 2020, despite the fact that he would be 78 years old in four years. Sanders, too, has been highly visible since the Nov. 8 election, perhaps an indication that he isn’t ready to give up his presidential ambitions either.
For Warren, though, her move to spend the next several years building up the weakest part of her portfolio – foreign policy – could pay dividends in the long run and make her a formidable candidate in a Democratic primary and general election campaign against Donald Trump.
Not to mention, of course, that very few people get under the president-elect’s thin skin quite like Elizabeth Warren, who offered some of the most bruising attacks on Trump throughout the 2016 campaign.
Her presence on this important committee should bring comfort to progressives all across America – and will likely give the Trump team heartburn.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.