Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, addressed the Democratic National Convention Wednesday evening immediately before President Bill Clinton delivered the headlining speech.
Warren began her campaign for the Senate in September of 2011, and has since been selected as the Democratic nominee with a record-breaking majority vote from the delegates, according to her website.
Wednesday evening, Warren drew on anecdotes of her modest past to tell the delegates she endorses President Obama.
“I never thought I’d run for the Senate and I sure never dreamed that I’d be the warm up act for President Bill Clinton,” Warren said. “…I’m here tonight to talk about hardworking people…who can be counted on to help their kids, their parents, their neighbors…people who work their hearts out that are up against a hard truth. The game is rigged against them. It wasn’t always this way.”
Warren said she grew up on the edge of the middle class with three brothers who served in the military, and a history of teaching elementary school
“I’m grateful down to my toes for every opportunity that America gave me—this is a great country,” Warren said. “I grew up in an America that invested in its kids and established a strong middle class…an America in which each generation built something solid so that the next generation could build something better.”
Warren said the current trend has been to “squeeze and hammer” the middle class.
“Their fight is my fight, and it’s Barack Obama’s fight too,” Warren said. “People feel like the system is rigged against them, and here’s the painful part—they’re right.”
Warren spoke about President Obama’s fight to control corruption on Wall Street and how his determination on that issue proved his commitment to the middle class.
“President Obama gets it because he’s spent his life fighting for the middle class and now he’s fighting to level the playing field,” Warren said.
Warren said the Republican mantra of ‘I got mine, the rest of you are on your own’ isn’t what America needs. In a reference to Gov. Mitt Romney’s quote, “Corporations are people,” Warren riled up the crowd.
“Corporations are not people,” Warren said. “People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance, they live, they love and they die, and that matters. That matters because we don’t run this country for corporations, we run it for people and that’s why we need Barack Obama.”
Warren said during the fight on Wall Street, American families didn’t have an army of lobbyists on their side, they had a president—President Obama.
“President Obama believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride and a golden parachute,” Warren said. “President Obama believes in a country where billionaires pay their taxes just like their secretaries do, and I can’t believe I have to say this in 2012, a country where women get equal pay for equal work. He believes in a country where everyone is held accountable, where no one can steal your purse on Main Street or your pension on Wall Street.”
Warren’s recipe for growing a successful economy was also clear.
“We root it in fairness, we grow it with opportunity and we build it together,” Warren said.
In her closing, Warren quoted Matthew 25:40 and said the American people are bound to each other and called to act.
“Let me ask you America, are you ready to answer this call? Are you ready to fight for good jobs and a strong middle class? Are you ready to work for a level playing field? Are you ready to prove to another generation of Americans that we can build a better country and a newer world?” Warren asked. “Joe Biden is ready, Barack Obama is ready, I’m ready, you’re ready.”