Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren campaigns in Memphis
Democratic 2020 presidential contender Elizabeth Warren kicked off a three-state tour with a stop Sunday in Memphis, highlighting her policy plans for a universal child care system funded with a tax on "ultra-millionaires," and a recently-rolled out housing plan.
"This is a 50-state campaign strategy. I’m running to be president of all the people," said Warren, the Massachusetts senator, of her tour through the three Southern states. "And it’s important to go around the country and have a chance to talk with people face to face."
Warren is calling for a tax on very wealthy Americans as a means of funding universal early child care.
"We would have an opportunity to make an investment in our babies aged 0 to 5 and still have $2 trillion leftover," said Warren, speaking to a crowd of nearly 500 people at Douglass High School Sunday evening.
Shelby County Commissioner and Memphis mayoral candidate Tami Sawyer joined Warren on stage to moderate a short question-and-answer session with the crowd.
Affordable housing
After Warren’s father suffered a heart attack when she was a child, he couldn’t go back to work for a long period of time. The family struggled financially, and lost their vehicle. So Warren’s mother took a minimum wage job, she said.
“It’s where I learned words like mortgage and foreclosure,” Warren said.
“If you want to know who I am, that’s the story that tells it all. That’s the one that’s written on my heart.”
Her mother's job was able to support the family and save their house, Warren said.
"Today, a minimum wage job will not keep a mama and a baby out of poverty. That is wrong and that is why I’m in this fight," Warren said.
Before Warren spoke in Memphis, she met with affordable housing advocates from local organizations such as the Mid-south Peace and Justice Center and the Greater Whitehaven Economic Redevelopment Corporation.
Warren recently rolled out her housing plan, which builds on a bill she introduced in the Senate, the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act. Her plan aims to drive down the cost of rent, ramp up government spending on affordable housing and close a racial gap when it comes to home ownership.
Warren's plan calls for a $500 billion investment in building new and rehabilitating existing affordable housing units over the next decade.
“Why is it that hardworking people, people that work every bit as hard as my mother did, have a tougher, steeper rockier road than ever?” Warren said in Memphis on Sunday. “For families of color, the road is even steeper and even rockier.”
Some Warren supporters in Memphis wore "Nevertheless She Persisted" T-shirts, which became a rallying cry after Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell cut short Warren's comments during debate about former Attorney General Jeff Sessions' nomination in 2017.
‘Leadership should start at the top’
Tennessee Democratic Party State Executive Committeewoman Jasmine Boyd introduced Warren, who she said has “bold and disruptive ideas we should all get behind.”
Warren is calling for sweeping changes to entrenched systems: an economic overhaul that gives unions more power and makes it easier for workers to join them, and anti-corruption legislation.
"When you see a government that works for those at the top, those with money and connections, and it's not working for anyone else, you’ve got to call it what it is: corruption, pure and simple," Warren said.
The senator also called for the repeal of "every voter suppression law in this country," and acknowledgement that white nationalism is a United States security threat.
"In the same way ISIS and Al Qaeda and terrorism pose a threat to the U.S., so does the rise of white nationalism," Warren said.
"Leadership starts at the top, it’s important to call it out and then to use the justice department to fight back hard against it."
Warren officially launched her 2020 presidential bid last month. She's a contender in a wide field of Democratic challengers that also includes Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Warren will participate in a CNN Town Hall at Jackson State University Monday night, and will continue on to Selma and Birmingham, Alabama, on Tuesday.
Jamie Munks covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jamie.munks@commercialappeal.com . Follow her on Twitter @journo_jamie_.