Warren honing campaign pitch for 2018 race
BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren won't face voters for more than a year, but the broad outlines of the effort to unseat the Massachusetts Democrat, and her re-election pitch to voters, are taking shape.
Two Republicans have announced their candidacies, two others are said to be weighing runs, and conservative political groups are chipping away at the candidate.
Still, Warren enjoys enormous advantages, including a national base of support, a fat campaign account and solid poll numbers.
Hanging over everything is the question of whether Warren will run for the White House in 2020.
THE CANDIDATE
After she was first elected in 2012, Warren generally shied away from town hall events and the press. With a looming campaign, that's all changed.
On Friday, the 68-year-old held her 10th public town hall this year in Revere, just north of Boston.
"I love the town meetings. It's a chance to hear from people all across Massachusetts," Warren told The Associated Press. "They stand up. They ask questions in the town meeting and I stay afterward for everybody who wants to take a picture, shake hands, tell me something personally that they want me to hear."
She said the top concern is the same: "Health care, health care, health care."
"Right now we have huge fights in front of us and we've got to say focused on those fights," she said.
THE PITCH
Warren is also busy honing her campaign pitch.
She points to legislation she championed aimed at reducing the cost of hearing aids by letting them be sold over the counter. President Donald Trump was expected to sign the measure.
Warren ran through other wins, from debt relief for Massachusetts students cheated by for-profit colleges to helping secure federal dollars to dredge Boston Harbor, rebuild sea walls, extend the Green Line subway route and pay for firefighting equipment. She also cited her stiff opposition to the GOP effort to repeal former President Barack Obama's health care law — an effort that might not be over.