Elizabeth Warren

Growing Up On The Ragged Edge Of The Middle Class

Elizabeth’s life hasn’t followed a straight line. Elizabeth grew up in Norman, OK She grew up in Oklahoma in a two-bedroom house with one bathroom and a converted garage where her three older brothers slept. Elizabeth's dad sold fencing and carpeting, and later became a janitor.

When Elizabeth was twelve, her dad suffered a heart attack and was out of work for a long time. Bills piled up. They lost the family station wagon, and were about an inch away from losing their home.

One morning, she walked into her parents’ bedroom. Her mother was pacing and crying, and laid out on the bed was the dress — the one that only came out for weddings, funerals, and graduations. She kept saying, “We will not lose this house. We will not lose this house. We will not lose this house.”

She was 50 years old and had never worked outside the home. But she wrestled on the dress and walked to Sears, where she got a minimum wage job answering phones.

That job saved their home, and it saved their family.

All three of Elizabeth’s older brothers served in the military. Her oldest brother was career Air Force. Her middle brother went on to work construction. Her youngest brother started his own business.

Elizabeth and her three older brothers.

Since second grade, Elizabeth dreamed of becoming a public school teacher. But that meant she’d need a college degree, and her parents didn’t have the money for an application, much less tuition.

Elizabeth never thought she’d run for public office.

Elizabeth’s path was bumpy. She earned a college debate scholarship, but dropped out at 19 to marry her high school sweetheart. She got a job answering phones. It was the life she had chosen — it just wasn’t her dream.

A Second Chance

Elizabeth found another door of opportunity, and she ran through it: a public college that cost $50 a semester. Elizabeth got her degree and finally got to live her dream, becoming a public school special education teacher. But by the end of the first year, she was visibly pregnant with her first child, Amelia. The principal told her the job she’d already been promised for the next year would go to someone else.

Elizabeth on being a new mom and enrolled in law school. When Amelia turned two, Elizabeth enrolled in Rutgers Law School and graduated pregnant with her son, Alex. She practiced law out of her living room for a little while, but soon returned to her first love: teaching.

Elizabeth loved teaching law, but outside the classroom, things weren’t going so well. As a working mom, Elizabeth couldn’t find reliable quality child care. News Warren introduces ‘$10 a day’ child care legislation. Read more One night, in tears, she confided in her Aunt Bee that she thought she’d have to quit her job because of it.

Elizabeth’s Aunt Bee with Alex, Buddy the Pekingese, and Amelia.

Then Aunt Bee said eleven words that changed her life forever: “I can’t get there tomorrow, but I can come on Thursday.” News How Motherhood Led Elizabeth Warren to the Senate. Read more She arrived with seven suitcases and a dog named Buddy — and stayed for 16 years.

Elizabeth's first marriage ended, but then she met Bruce Mann, a fellow law professor. They fell in love, and after the first time she watched him teach, she proposed to him on the spot. They’ve been married for over four decades.

(L) Elizabeth with husband Bruce Mann

(R) Elizabeth and Bruce on their wedding day in 1980

Here’s why the minimum wage is a crucial tool to achieve racial justice Elizabeth continued teaching law at schools across the country for the next 30 years, dedicating her career to studying why working families are going broke.

She traveled to bankruptcy courtrooms across the country, and learned the stories of people who had seen their lives turned upside down by medical bills, job losses, and divorces.

Elizabeth speaks about the stories of families filing for bankruptcy.

What she discovered was terrifying: Working families weren’t falling through the cracks — they were falling into traps. The path to financial security was getting steeper and rockier, and even steeper and even rockier for people of color.

Financial companies targeted Black and Brown families Elizabeth on why we must confront the legacy of redlining with predatory loans and mortgages. Big banks and giant corporations were rigging the rules to benefit themselves and no one else. It was time to start fighting back.

In 1995, Elizabeth joined a blue-ribbon commission launched by Congress to review the country’s bankruptcy laws and suggest improvements. The big financial institutions were lobbying Congress to rewrite the rules so they could squeeze more profit from working families, especially families of color. For 10 years, Elizabeth successfully helped influence Congress to side with working families.

Elizabeth was sounding the alarm about the state of the economy for years before the 2008 crash. In 2003, she and her daughter, Amelia, published a book on how the middle class was getting hollowed out. And she went on Dr. Phil to give families financial advice on how to work around the traps laid by the financial industry.

Elizabeth helping families understand finance and debt on Dr. Phil.

But in 2005, Congress decided to put the interests of the big banks and credit card companies over the interests of the American people, by making it harder for working people to get out of debt. Elizabeth knew she'd have to keep up the fight.

Making Change

Elizabeth rang the alarm as loud as she could about how big banks and financial institutions were hurting families by sneaking tricks and traps into credit cards, mortgages, and more. She warned that banks were testing out predatory loans in communities of color The Daily Show with Jon Stewart before spreading those loans out across the market.

But Wall Street owned Washington, and politicians were too corrupt to listen. Then, the financial crisis hit.

Elizabeth fought alongside President Obama for middle-class families.

Elizabeth explains how toaster ovens helped inspire the CFPB. In 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked Elizabeth to come to Washington to head a commission overseeing the Wall Street bailout. She fought to hold Wall Street accountable, protect taxpayers, and ensure tough oversight.

Elizabeth is widely credited for the original thinking, political courage, and relentless persistence that led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Alongside President Obama, she built the agency from the ground up. Wall Street lobbied hard against it, and a lot of people said it could never be done.

Today, the CFPB protects consumers from financial institutions and tricks, scams, and traps — fighting on the side of families and making sure they get a fair shake as they build their future. The CFPB already returned more than $19 billion to American consumers who’ve been tricked by big banks and corporations.

After Senate Republicans vowed to block Elizabeth’s nomination to serve as the CFPB’s first director, Elizabeth went back home to Massachusetts and ran against one of them — and won.

She started 17 points down in a race against Scott Brown, a popular Republican incumbent. She ended up beating him by 7.5 points. Since 2013, Elizabeth has fought for working families in the Bay State as their senior senator.

Elizabeth on the night of her 2012 Senate win with husband, Bruce Mann.

In the Senate, Elizabeth has made change that touches people’s daily lives, she’s held the rich and powerful accountable for cheating and abusing the American people, and she’s transformed the national debate by introducing sweeping plans for the big, bold action we need.

Elizabeth Warren and Ayanna Pressley Celebrate Student Debt Cancellation From student loan debt cancellation for public servants to over-the-counter hearing aids, she’s helped put money back in people’s pockets. She helped pass legislation to stabilize the child care industry when COVID hit, double our federal investment in scientific research, and help fund the fight against climate change with a new tax on massively profitable corporations. And she’s delivered for Massachusetts, helping secure federal resources to create good union jobs rebuilding roads and power clean energy projects around the Commonwealth.

Never afraid to hold corporate executives’ feet to the fire, she successfully pressured two Wells Fargo CEOs into resigning after the fake accounts scandal. She shamed big banks into eliminating overdraft fees after shining a light on how Wall Street was wringing profits out of struggling Americans during the pandemic. And she took on the first Trump administration for coddling corporations at the expense of students, working people, and the survival of our planet.

As one of America’s leading progressive voices, she spoke out with moral clarity against right-wing extremists ripping away abortion rights, drove federal agencies to expand access to abortion care, and helped focus national attention on state-level fights for reproductive freedom, where activists secured vital protections. And she has helped reshape the national conversation with innovative proposals to root corruption out of Washington, give workers more say in the decision-making of big corporations, and break up monopolies. Now, she’s defending our values from the far-right and fighting for bold, urgently needed plans — like a wealth tax on fortunes greater than $50 million, affordable child care for every American family, and protection from climate change for our coastal communities in Massachusetts.

Elizabeth’s life hasn’t followed a straight path, but at every turn she was able to fight for opportunity. Her journey laid the foundation for the plans she’s proposed and the change she’s delivered. Now, she’s fighting from the heart to make sure everyone gets the same chances she got to succeed.